«EGO» by Claudio Mühle

Trying to come to terms with the past can be dangerous.
Very young director Claudio Mühle exploits a common experience among every generation of teens, that of the desire for acceptance that sometimes ends in bullying, to give us a tale as dry as it is disturbing.
In this noir-tinged short film, Hana and Freyja, two former schoolmates find themselves after many years facing a trip together to a remote location.

The excursion for the two into nature seems like the moment chosen by the two girls to reinvigorate what should have been a friendship, and perhaps clear up some words from the past, but the more the light in the woods they are walking through wanes, the more brooding resentments resurface.
Strange electricity seems from the outset to arise from the meeting between the two, and some not-too-veiled clues make up an atmosphere of a state of alertness that grows beyond recognition.
The crescendo of tension that constitutes the enigmatic appeal of this short rests on the dense confrontation between the two protagonists as much as on the direction of the cinematography, entrusted to the multifaceted talent of Blake Simpson, who exploits the cold, sharp Nordic natural light to render the metallic flavor of resentment and fear.
This an example of realism meets eerie, leaving us estranged in an unexpected ending.