Delicious
Two Distant Strangers (2020) is an Academy (Oscar) awards nominated short film that you shouldn’t miss. It uses a time-loop format to show the rough treatment meted to African Americans by law enforcement in the USA, to produce a very engaging film that will remain with you for a long time. Available on Netflix.
A young man Carter James (Joey Bada$$) wakes up in bed next to a beautiful miss Perri (Zaria) in a two-storey nice apartment in downtown New York. As he walks out, he faces danger for his life in the form of an NYPD officer Merk (Andrew Howard). This repeats over and over again from Carter’s waking moment till the deadly encounter – each time Carter tries a different move, nothing works and his nightmare continues. Once Carter approaches Merk in the friendliest manner and builds a nice conversation with him – that sequence and dialogues were ingenious and lifelike.
The cinematography, the locations, the casting, and the screenplay, everything about the film was brilliant. It was a refreshing change to see young African-Americans being shown smarter and wealthier onscreen. The story hits you hard when you realize you can live a moment and the very next you can get killed for no fault of yours – what an unfair society we are living in!
I saw the film to be a fitting tribute to honour the memory of George Floyd of Minneapolis and the countless others who get killed every day by the use of excessive force by Police around the world including in India – I could remember the recent Sathankulam killings of Mr Jeyaraj and his son Mr J Bennix. May their souls rest in peace.
Two Distant Strangers (2020)
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