II (2019)
★★★ — II (2019)
I'll be honest with you: going into a Belarusian short film, I had certain expectations, and this one completely upended them. That's on me, probably. A bit judgemental to assume you know where a story is heading just because of where it comes from. But that's exactly what II did to me, knocked my assumptions flat, and I came out the other side genuinely surprised by where it all went.
This is part of my ongoing A-Z World Movie Tour, and Belarus was always going to be an interesting stop. Eastern European short filmmaking has a particular flavour to it, something spare and unshowy that tends to hit harder precisely because it isn't trying to dazzle you. II fits squarely into that tradition. The story is genuinely engrossing, the kind that pulls you in quietly before you've even realised you're hooked, and the performances carry real weight. There's an authenticity to the acting that makes you forget you're watching something constructed. That part of the film works, and works well.
Where it stumbles a little is the technical side of things, and I don't say that to be cruel because budget is a real constraint and everyone working in this space knows it. But the handheld camera work is a constant presence, and I'm genuinely not sure it earns its keep here. I understand the intention. That shaky, restless approach is supposed to create intimacy, to put you right there in the room with the characters, feeling everything in real time. And sometimes it does. But there's a stretch in the earlier sections of the film where it tips over into something almost dreamlike, this hazy, floating quality that felt at odds with the grounded story being told. I kept waiting for the visuals and the narrative to lock into the same gear, and it took a while.
But then the twist lands, and suddenly a lot is forgiven. I won't say a word about what it is because you deserve to get there fresh, the same way I did. What I will say is that it reframes everything that came before it in a way that feels earned rather than cheap. It's not a gotcha. It's a gut punch. The kind that makes you sit quietly for a moment afterwards and just let it settle.
That's the thing about these short films from Eastern Europe. They tend not to waste your time. There's no fat on them, no scene that exists just to look pretty or pad the runtime. Everything is in service of the story, and when the story is as strong as it is here, you feel the efficiency as a kind of generosity. This one is depressing, make no mistake about it. It doesn't offer you a way out or a soft landing. But it earns that darkness honestly.
Three stars. A flawed but genuinely affecting piece of filmmaking, and a reminder that the world movie tour keeps delivering surprises in the most unexpected places.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2019 | Watched: 2025-05-27
