A Deadly Beautiful Date

The writer-director Emrah Caso Ljucic enjoys exploring mysteries of the human mind. Ljucic intermingled thrill, perceptions, and drama to create cinema that showcases the complexities of the human experience that resonate long after the credits roll leaving the audience inspired intrigued and eager asking for more. Deniz Sodal Gulsen, Naja Julie Jensen, and Tore Dokkedahl understand Ljucic’s vision delve into psychological thrillers blurring the lines between reality and Illusion.

The plot of the short film revolves around a celebrity’s captivating and deadly beautiful date that escalates into a surreal nightmare. As tensions mount shocking revelations push the boundaries of sanity leaving the audience gripped on the edge of their seats yearning for answers.

A Deadly Beautiful Date utilises various cartoons along with the opening credits and music to establish the subject matter of the movie engaging with the film’s content from the very beginning. The long shot of the male protagonist sitting alone in a lavish restaurant in a bad mood intensifies the narrative slowly picking up pace. The set design, the black, golden, and blue colour pallet exude elegance, and luxury but with hidden coldness/sadness, dim lighting, camera angles, sound, music, dialogues, costume, hair, makeup, and props complementing the storyline to depict authenticity, drama suspense, and emotions on a profound level.

In terms of performance, Deniz Sodal Gulsen plays the male protagonist Deniz who likes to show off his luxurious life but he is running out of emotions in his day-to-day life. He is waiting for his date to arrive completely unaware of what the future holds for him. The young actor effortlessly portrays a dominant demeaner in major part of A Deadly Beautiful Date but is gradually forced to change his behaviour due to the situation that gets worse.

Naja Julie Jensen plays the role of Mia Sofia a well-educated strong and charming lady who comes to meet Deniz challenging his thought process and standing against everything that she thinks is wrong. Jensen depicts all the qualities that inspire people and they can learn incorporating them in their lives.

Phillip Bogh plays Dr. Nullermann who agrees to help the owner/ the waiter of the restaurant with an illegal activity for the sake of money. Bogh with his acting skills, body language, voice modulation, makeup, and facial expressions immerses himself completely in the negativity of the character arc.

A Deadly Beautiful Date talks about the unconditional love of parents becoming our shield when something unforeseen happens that can turn life-threatening as well. The short film reiterates that society has given certain gender roles that’s need to be broken or altered to let people move on with the dynamic nature of time. The dramatic piece warns the viewers that choosing the illegal/wrong path may seem to lure them to take an easy solution for their problem but actually it comes with long term sadness, suffering for themselves and others around them. The creative piece also highlights that value people, relationships, and happy times spend it with the right mind-set because the time that goes by doesn’t come again and one is left with only regrets.