Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(February 2009)

Directed by: Reto Caffi (co-written with Philippe Zweifel)
Starring: Roeland Wiesnekker, Catherine Janke, Leonardo Nigro, Hanspeter Bader, André Meyer

Rolf, a department store security guard, traces the movements of an employee of the book department through the store and gets the timing just right to almost communicate with her each night on the train home. Seeming strange and somewhat calculated at first, it seems possible that he's just looking for an encounter that differs from his infinite, inanimate interactions with a video monitor. Rolf's mind morphs pieces into his own version of the bigger puzzle, and his misunderstandings lead to a moment of inaction with major consequence.

Filmed with first-rate lensing by Piotr Rosolowski, Auf der Strecke utilizes smoldering performances from its leads and a stripped-down script to create a visual story about a secret in which the viewer feels invested, having borne personal witness to the moments of magnitude. At a running time of just under 30 minutes, this is one of the longer shorts up for Oscar's Live Action award, but the skill of these filmmakers leaves you wondering and wanting the answer to, "What happens next?" -MPM

Oscar-nominated for a Live Action Short. With more than fifty awards to its credit (visit IMDB and SwissFilms), Swiss film Auf der Strecke is already the winner of a Student Academy Award for "honorary foreign film" and the winner of the prestigious Grand Prix from Clermont-Ferrand.

You can find out more about the director at http://www.retocaffi.com/.

Photo courtesy of Academy of Media Arts.