Thoughtful and beautifully made, this is one of the best shorts I've seen in a while. Jonny Phillips (of The Last Great Wilderness fame) writes and directs, and takes on the lead role of a world-weary tree surgeon who's day at work takes a turn for the worse. The story builds very subtly from its naturalistic opening to a dreamlike crescendo, here's hoping it finds success on the festival circuit. Technically the film is a triumph, I'm not sure what the budget was but I expect it was made on a wing and prayer like most other shorts nowadays. The action is centred around a single tree, and the cinematographer certainly makes a virtue of this limitation. The camera swoops and prowls among the branches as Jonny climbs up into them, you notice the beauty of the light pushing through the leaves but also the growing sense of danger as our protagonist leaves the ground behind. The lensing is crisp, the sound design lean but effective, the editing flows unobtrusively. Both performances (Phillips and John Kirk) are nuanced and convincing. Definitely one to seek out if it's playing near you.
