The Empty

A short drama written and directed by Liam Adam Treacy and starring Imaan Haider.

It is a windy night and a young woman (Haider) wearing the hijab is walking by herself in a city centre. She checks her phone and sees that she has received a reply regarding her Refugee Status Application. As she nervously hesitates to open the message, her phone's battery runs out, causing her to frantically run around the area, looking for a way to charge her device so she can find out the life-changing result.

This four-minute-long short works quite well as a thriller, keeping the viewer in suspense, wondering what the decision is regarding her application, while the heroine tries desperately to find a place to recharge her phone. In some ways, the screenplay contains two storylines: one involving the character struggling to find the courage to read the message and the other concentrating on her looking for a power supply. From a technical point of view, the film fits a significant amount of creativity in its short duration. There are no spoken words and no music. What is mostly heard (diegetically) is the protagonist's heavy breathing, the traffic and her footsteps. The filmmakers are rather creative with the sound techniques, utilising the sounds of a heartbeat to create suspense and tension and extensively using a sort of ringing sound. Treacy also worked on the editing and by applying fast cutting at certain sequences, he makes the story briefly go back and forth in time, ostensibly for dramatic effect.

If there is something that seems flawed, then that might be repetition. There are several shots of the protagonist's legs while she is running. Perhaps these are a bit overused, maybe there are too many of them. Aside from that, things are OK.

Haider's character is the only person in the film, apart from certain people seen here and there, therefore, her performance is vital in order for the film to have an effect and she is very convincing as a worried youth who is desperate to find what the anwer is regarding her future.

This short provides an insight into life as a refugee, exploring the struggles they go through with an uncertain future. It is a film about desperation, hope, courage and the struggle to succeed. From a different perspective, it is also a commentary about technology, about how much people depend on technological devices today. Since the heroine is the only person in this story (at least the only one who is not seen only from a distance), there is a feeling of isolation, like she is alone in a dark place.

This is a poignant story about a person who is in a very crucial situation, about to discover what the future holds. The film does a good job in creating drama and suspense and Haider's strong performance is a big plus.