![]() Recently I attended the Encounters Film Festival which is a worldwide festival designed to spotlight new and upcoming film makers. During the two days we spent there, we watched a great number of short films and animations. One film that really stood out to me was a British film named "Patriot". Personally, I connected with this film's meaning and I realised the message the film maker was trying to convey. The film starts off with a family from London who are joined by members of their community. A young girl is singing, this girl's name is Hannah and she is the main protagonist in the film. Her family and members of her community are all very patriotic. The opening scene is set in a back garden decorated with England and Union Jack flags, this gives the audience the idea that the entire community loves their country. We do not know why all of the town is there, and as an audience we do not know their plans, however we do know that they're all planning to do something. The second scene sets place in the kitchen; Hannah has been ordered by her father to get her food from the barbecue so she enters to give her father the food. He instantly orders her to leave the room as he and a few others are "talking business". We can tell that they're talking about how to act when they get to wherever they're going. Hannah is angry because her older brother Jack is allowed to stay in the room so she argues with her dad. Despite this, her brother Jack pushes her out of the kitchen which angers Hannah. Hannah leaves the house and jumps onto her bike which is against a wall outside of the house. As an audience we know that she has decided to run away to punish her family for being so cruel. Her father's ideas about the country have clearly been spread to Hannah as she is wearing an England flag as a cape while riding her bike. Finally she arrives at a corn field, passing people who are picking the crops. The people picking the crops are of a different ethnicity as Hannah, therefore she scowls at them. As she runs through the corn field she gets to a caravan park. She's very curious to who lives there, so she opens the door to one of the caravans and is about to step inside until a boy steps out of the opposite caravan eating something. Hannah feels she is superior to the boy due to her ethnicity and origin. After staring at the boy she says "pick fruit in your own country". A lot of her dad's ideas have definitely rubbed off onto her and she is using her prejudice ideas against people. Hannah runs away. She is scared of the boy and didn't realise what the people who lived in the caravans were actually like. The boy chases her and Hannah trips, cutting her leg badly. The boy says "are you scared?" and Hannah replies "I'm not scared of anybody." Hannah still feels she has the upper hand when talking to this boy so she mentions her dad and how though and strong he is. However the boy has a cocky attitude and says "if anyone comes near me I'll kill them". Hannah doesn't want to be talking to him any longer because she realises that he's pathetic and cocky. She walks over to her bike to get back on but when she looks around the boy is pretending to be a boxer. The two characters at this point try to impress each other. Hannah realises that the boy can box so can't be so weak afterall but I felt like the boy wanted to be impressed too. He asks "do you box?", she replies "sometimes...". He holds up his hand for her to give him a demonstration but she isn't impressive at all. In my opinion, after this point in the film is where the two characters really connect. The boy teaches Hannah how to box. After this happens, Hannah falls to the floor and the boy jumps on top of her. He remains on top of her and she tries to get him off. This reminds me a lot of play fighting but can also been seen as a form of flirting. During this moment, a car pulls up beside them and Hannah's brother steps out. Hannah pushes the boy off of her. Her brother is outraged seeing a boy from a different community flirting with his sister. He shouts at Hannah and demands for her to go home. After Jack leaves, the boy runs back to the caravans, followed by Hannah. Hannah was embarrassed being seen with with a "gypo", as her brother said. But when she finally reached the boys caravan, he had locked himself inside of it. Due to her embarrassment she wanted to show that she wasn't really friends with this boy otherwise her father would not be pleased. She starts bagging on the doors and windows but the boy doesn't answer but pulls the blinds closed. Hannah grabs a rusty metal pole from outside of the caravan and starts hitting the caravan. Then she smashes a window which angers the boy. He steps outside and shouts at her. As part of the audience, I and everyone else was stunned when she hit the boy over the head with the pole. I think that she did it because she was ashamed of connecting with him, and her father would never allow their friendship. She then cycles home. To conclude, I think the message of this film was to emphasise the damage that British citizens can cause to other communities. It also shows how ideas can be carried through upbringing. For example, the father had a dislike for anyone foreign or for immigrants and this quality was also shared by his children, Jack and Hannah. The only criticism I would give the film is that the acting was slightly weak in places but other than that, I thought the film maker had done an amazing job of giving the film a hidden meaning. Comments are closed.
|
Will TownsendA keen videographer and photographer. Currently studying Level 3 Creative Media Production at SGS WISE Campus, Bristol. Archives
November 2015
Categories
All
|