Shorta

During the crime film festival (Reims polar) we could discover the first film of the two directors Anders Ølhol and Frederik Louis Hviid. After a first short film, King (2015) marking the beginning of their collaboration, Shorta stands out as a thriller as effective as violent.  Jens Hoyer (Simon Sears) and Mike Andersen (Jacob Lohmann), two police officers on routine patrol will find themselves trapped in a maze of buildings by a mob of vengeful rioters. Shorta sounds as true as it is strong, especially in a context in which the numerous blunders of the police force are pointed out. The George Floyd case in Minneapolis has spilled a lot of blood and ink and has shown that some people exceed their power and do not deserve to represent or integrate the forces of order. The palpable tension of the film reminds us of some of John Carpenter's films such as Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) or more recently equally strong as Bac Nord (2020) by Cedric Jimenez. 

The original title of the film is of Arabic origin and means Police. The film captures this word perfectly by describing the journey through the chaos of two policemen who soon find themselves in a tornado of violence against rebellious locals. Shorta shows a real care for the script as it allows to draw the portrait of two men forced to work together and whose way of acting is in constant confrontation. We feel in this film the influence of American cinema in which action is the first word and especially far from trying to propose unrealistic situations like some blockbusters to stick permanently to reality. The film perfectly points out the tensions of our current society and the impact of the mismanagement of immigrants placed in areas that are gradually becoming dangerous no-go zones in which the forces of order no longer dare to intervene. 

The film is all the more powerful as it opens premonitory on a scene in which a young delinquent of foreign origin is tackled to the ground by the police and shouts that he can't breathe before losing consciousness. From this scene the climate is set, while this young man is between life and death and that the forces of order are pointed out for their recurrent and unacceptable violence, the film takes a strong connotation and imposes Shorta as one of the strong films of this festival.  With such a subject, the directors Anders Ølholm and Frederik Louis Hviid understood the universal and current scope of their story and takes as much care on the photography of the film as on its development. With an undeniable strength, Shorta imposes its two directors as the new generation of the current action cinema and we can only imagine that one of their next films should be shot in the United States. 

By placing the main action of the film in the Svalegården district of Copenhagen, Shorta benefits from a certain originality and above all shows us that European cinema is capable of facing up to current American cinema with lower budgets but with actors and directors who are just as deserving. This film will be released in France on June 23, with a delay (it was released on SVOD in the United States on March 19) and we can only advise you to go and see it

Shorta
A film written and directed by Anders Ølholm & Frederik Louis Hviid
Produced by Morten Kaufmann & Signe Leick Jensen
Starring Jacob Hauberg Lohmann, Simon Sears, Tarek Zayat, Dulfi Al-Jabouri, Issa Khattab, Abdelmalik Dhaflaoui, Özlem Saglanmak
Music by Martin Dirkov
Director of photography: Jacob MØller
Editing: Anders Albjerg Kristiansen 
Production: Toolbox film
Distribution: Alba Films (France)
Release date: June 23, 2021 (France)
Running time: 108 minutes

Seen on May 30, 2021 (Reims polar)

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