Director – Pablo Otero (Umbra, Nexo)
Starring – Carolina Castellano (The Ministry of Time, Love in Difficult Times), Lucia Hoyos (Mambo, Down There), and Alvaro Ramos Toajas (Inspector Sun)
Release Date – 2023
Rating – 4/5
I’ve still got a handful of shorts left to review from the Dark Red Film Festival. I recently marathoned several of their films but I decided to take a break from them after I had watched three or four of them. I decided to get back into them after watching a few feature length films. The first in this marathon was 2023’s Baba from director Pablo Otero.
**Spoiler Alert** The film follows a young woman who returns to her childhood playhouse in the woods to see her imaginary friend. They do a little reconnecting and that’s when her talking rabbit notices the blood on her hands. He knows she did something horrible but before he can find out the police arrive to arrest her. **Spoiler Alert**
Baba is not a gory short with a story that will leave your squirming in you seat. In fact, it’s the exact opposite of that. It’s a film that relies heavily on character development and story which it has. It’s a fantastic short but it’s another one that leaves me with more questions than answers.
The acting in this one is great. The film’s lead is acting out her entire scene with an imaginary puppet that is visually added. I don’t know if someone was filmed in place and green screened out for the rabbit or she was talking to someone not there the entire time. Either way, she does a phenomenal job and I would be even more impressed if she delivered her dialogue with no one there.
The story for this one is a solid psychological thriller that makes you think the film is going one way but, instead, it goes in a completely different direction. It wants you to think it’s a sweet film about a woman rekindling her friendship with her imaginary friend but it’s not. With that being said, I have so many questions. The most obvious is what lead to the bloody hands and the police after her, what was the body count, and did her imaginary friend and childhood lead to the murder/murders? While it is a fantastic short, I feel this story could have been stretched a lot longer than it actually was.
Finally, if you are looking for amazing gore and great practical effects then you will be very disappointed. The film does showcase some visual effects with the rabbit. I liked the look of it in all honesty but I don’t think it will age well. Overall, Baba is a great short but does struggle from short blindness. There is so much left to tell with this story which it doesn’t really do as a short. Regardless, it’s still a fun watch so check it out!
