I Will Be Alright (2026)
Every so often a short film comes along that is so complete, so beautifully judged and so quietly devastating that it puts most features to shame, and I Will Be Alright is one of them. Cyrus Neshvad, Oscar nominated for his short The Red Suitcase, has made something close to perfect here, and I do not say that lightly. It is, for me, one of the finest shorts I have ever seen, and it earns a near-faultless four and a half stars.
It follows a young Iranian girl living undocumented in Luxembourg, who scrapes a living on the streets posing, painted and still, as the Statue of Liberty, a bitterly pointed image of a child performing freedom in a country that will not grant her any. When her mother is taken by the authorities to be deported, the girl flees, and from her makeshift shelter beneath a bridge she witnesses another girl, about her own age, throw herself into the river. What she does next, and the bond that forms between these two strangers across a single night, is where the film quietly works its magic.
I will say almost nothing about where it goes, because the writing is so exquisitely constructed that to spoil it would be a genuine crime. What I can tell you is that it takes a turn I did not see coming, one that recontextualises everything and lands an emotional gut-punch of extraordinary force, built on an act of selflessness so moving I had to sit with it for a while afterwards. The script, by Neshvad and Guillaume Levil, is a masterclass in economy and misdirection, every detail planted early paying off later, and a single handwritten note carrying the entire weight of the film's heart.
And it is gorgeous to look at. Guillaume Duchemin's cinematography is painterly and precise, all firelight and cold European night, and Neshvad directs with total control of tone, never once tipping into sentimentality despite material that could so easily have become mawkish. The two young leads, Tanaz Molaei and Emily Amor, are astonishing, carrying enormous emotional weight with a restraint and truth that belies their years. There is not a wasted frame or a false note in its eighteen minutes.
Four and a half stars. I Will Be Alright is a small miracle of a film, a beautifully made, beautifully written and profoundly humane story about displacement, sacrifice and the love that persists through the cruelest of partings. It is timely, it is universal, and it absolutely deserves the awards attention it is attracting. Seek it out the moment you can, and have a tissue ready. This is as good as short filmmaking gets.
I Will Be Alright touches on suicide and despair; viewers affected by these themes may wish to take care.
Related on Movies With Macca
More from Country Luxembourg: Song of the Sea (2014), A Town Called Panic (2009), Child (2026)
More from the 2020s: All That's Left of You (2025), The Whale (2022), Look Back (2024)
More drama: Delisted (2026), Lady (2026), These Violent Delights (2026)
