A Sister (2018)
★★★ — A Sister (2018)
Wow. Seriously. Wow.
I don't say that lightly. I've seen plenty of short films on my A-Z World Movie Tour, and most of them, however accomplished, feel like exactly what they are: a calling card, a proof of concept, a filmmaker showing you what they might be capable of one day. A Sister, Belgium's entry, doesn't feel like any of that. Sixteen minutes long, and it is as close to a perfect piece of filmmaking as I've ever seen in the short form. I'm not exaggerating. I genuinely sat there afterwards just staring at the screen.
The premise is stripped right back, which is part of what makes it so devastating. A woman calls the emergency services from a car. She's not alone in the car. The man driving doesn't know who she's calling. And from that single, simple, horrifying setup, the film wrings out more genuine tension than most thrillers manage across two hours. The dispatcher on the other end of the line has to piece together what's happening, and we're piecing it together alongside her, and the whole time your chest is getting tighter and tighter.
What really got me was the specificity of the stress. It wasn't abstract dread. It was the kind of anxiety that makes your hands feel clammy. Every word the woman chooses, every pause, every answer she gives to a question that isn't really asking what it sounds like it's asking. She has to speak in code without appearing to speak in code. She has to sound normal. She has to hold it together. And you are willing her through every single second of it, terrified that one wrong syllable is going to shatter the whole thing.
I was close to tears at one point. And I don't think that's a soft reaction. I think that's the correct reaction, because the film earns it completely. There's no manipulation here, no swelling score nudging you towards the feelings. It just puts you in the car with her and trusts you to feel the weight of it.
The performances are extraordinary given the constraints. So much has to be communicated with vocal tone, with tiny facial expressions, with what isn't being said. It reminded me a little of the pressure-cooker tension I felt watching When Evil Lurks, that feeling of a situation spiralling with no obvious exit, except here it's entirely contained, entirely intimate, and somehow even more suffocating for it.
There's also something in the way the film is constructed that just feels impossibly confident for its running time. Nothing is wasted. Not a frame, not a line of dialogue, not a single beat. Some features struggle to justify ninety minutes. This film says everything it needs to say in sixteen and leaves you completely wrung out.
Five stars, no hesitation. A perfect short film. If you haven't seen it, it won't take long. Find it. Watch it. Then sit very still for a while afterwards.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2018 | Watched: 2025-05-25
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Physical: Amazon US
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Belgium: The Second Night (2016) · The Fourth Kind (2009) · Kirikou and the Sorceress (1998) · A Cat in Paris (2010)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More thriller: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Angst (1983) · The Long Walk (2025) · Punishment Park (1971)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)
