Crease

Crease is an incisive and hard-hitting Russian short film about power, empathy and the human urge to navigate social structures.

Written and directed by Demitri Zujew, the story centres on two boys, Petya and Maxim.

Petya, a student with special educational needs who has won a national maths competition, is fiercely bullied at school, on the day that his Principal, who has also won a national award, is being interviewed about this and her school.

The film narrates deception and hypocrisy in an inspired way. As the two scenes unfold and we cut from one to the other.

While Petya is horrifically bullied, Maxim at first refuses to join in, but he gives into fierce peer pressure, a key aspect of Russian social culture according to the film's director.

Crease is brilliant in the way it illuminates the school, in the director's words, 'as a microcosm and metaphor of the entire society'. It looks at the deeply uncomfortable truth that children are as capable of cruelty (and envy) as adults. The root cause of why 'child's play' without true socialisation becomes international conflict. This in particular has never been more evident, just one look at current geopolitics will leave you without question in this regard.

Visually the film is deeply compelling, with a 4:30 aspect ratio, expressive points of view and a blue-grey colour palette.

The performance meanwhile are flawless- with particular credit to the child actors whose skill in accessing emotions and the story is superb.

Crease, whose title refers to the 'creases' that life impresses on every human being, even contains a fairly stunning plot twist at the end, which heightens the emotionality of the film. A great piece of cinema.