In Absence

It would honestly be quite difficult to fault Paul Nevison’s In Absence for really any aspect relating to the technical department. One might even be tempted to say that every frame of this 24-minute drama is perfect – at least from an audio-visual standpoint. We follow a young boy who has recently lost his mother. His family is Christian, and thus, this untimely death results in the father questioning his very faith in the good. Yet it’s the young boy whose perspective the audience experiences this story. His confusion and sorrow as he navigates his place within the familial-religious chaos of mourning. Conceivably, it would more be the screenplay – its plotting and its characters – which could receive any kind of scrutiny from a less favourable critic. But even that would be a case of personal preference; not as a result of any thematic or structural inconsistencies. In Absence is a masterpiece. A cinematic marvel and deeply moving.

I’d like to first draw your attention to Bjorn Amundsen – the director of photography for this picture – for this is a flawlessly lit movie. Characters bathed in gold light, blue light; everything stylistically impressionistic yet somehow natural and motivated. Not only is every shot perfectly balanced in terms of light and shadow, but entire rooms are also lit up from multiple artificial sources – a mix of daylight and domestic impressions – giving the film a lived-in, exploratory aesthetic wherein the viewer can feast their eyes all about the frame.

Flawless lens-work. And in collaboration, of course, with director Nevison, I – as a filmmaker myself – was quite inspired by how the film oscillates between these extremely wide-angled lenses (often placed at high angles in the corner of a room – perhaps formally symbolic of God’s omniscience) and these sharp, clean medium lenses which provide the frame so much depth and the subject’s face so much detail. This is award-worthy work from Amundsen as their work seemingly redefines just how good a short film drama can look in this age. I’m talking superior to the majority of feature-length studio products you see in your local multiplex. I’d also be remiss not to mention the effective on-location sound recording and resonant sound design, in addition to the striking set design and the fact that every performer is more than pulling their weight.

To surmise, what we have here is a truly refined work of visual storytelling; one told with passion and awesome technical and aesthetic prowess. I’ll conclude by mentioning a director whose works have a lot in common with this short alone... Since the passing of one of our greatest filmmakers, Terence Davies, I’ve written many pieces about his films (particularly his early shorts) and their significance to independent film. It is a stupendous compliment, therefore, that I thought of his films constantly while watching In Absence, since it is that they share many concerns relating to broken faith, feelings of desperation and disillusionment in trying times, and how these manifest within the family setting. Not only this, but Nevison’s dedication to craft and evoking mood through imagery, evoked much of Davies’ groundbreaking style.