The film starts with a wide shot of an underground train station with a far light approaching which can only mean one thing and that is a train is arriving. The background has a mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic sound; such as the drumming every 3 to 4 seconds and the train track screeching while the train is in sight. As the train passes the scene fades and introduces the title of the short film 'Strangers'. This attracts the audience very well as it leaves a sign of mystery as to what is going to happen, it's like the train is there one second and then it's gone the next to show that there may be some sudden action involved.
There is a man awaiting the trains' arrival and gets on board the train. He is looked at through mid to close up shot as he enters. He walks through the train looking to sit down and as he finds a seat he notices the person sitting across from him. At first there seems to be a bit of hostility from the man who just sat down and for a reason we are not yet aware of, we then see a close up of the newspaper and how it is written in Arabic. This tells us that the man may be uncomfortable by the presence. The man who was previously seated takes a look up as he turns the page and notices how the man opposite him is dangling the icon of his religion (Judaism) and the star of David around his neck in front of the mans face. This is a never ending problem all over the world between the Middle East and Israel. The staring all of a sudden makes sense and it makes the audience feel like they're right in the middle of it. There is absolutely no dialogue used in the sequence and this helps build up tension through out.
The camera tends to cut very much between them and the train track from the outside and the diegetic sound increases as well. This helps shift the audiences attention from the central focus in order to make it more dramatic later on. Then all of a sudden the man looks up and a very loud drum sound repeatedly (Non-Diegetic) which causes the audience to feel some sort of distress. Mixed in with the drums, whispers are thrown in and are very unclear as they add tension to the scene. The man sheepishly puts away his necklace for a reason unknown at that point in time but revealed when we see them advertising the Nazi emblem. After this takes place and one of the men spray paints the newspaper, the camera work is executed very well and introduces each new face individually, and after each facial expression is revealed it returns once to each of the men previously sitting down to have us feel fear for them as it seems like they are going to experience something unpleasant.
It then comes down to 6/7 strangers literally sitting there in silence with only looks upon each other and not a word of dialogue. Even without dialogue it is clear what is going on. The two men that were already seated don't seem like they're going to speak a word in the event it is out of line and with terrible consequences, so it seemed like they were going to wait it out and hope for some sort of window of opportunity.
The train stops and out of no where as the second who arrived is leaving a traditional Jewish ring tone plays in front of who of all people, it was extremely humorous and at the same time feelings of sorrow, because now his identity is known. Suddenly both men make a break for the final exit, non diegetic music is at a full blast and very rapid cuts between them and the gang, this was very well built and is released through the audience not knowing whether they were going to caught.
The ending was pulled off very well and the fact that they had a smile on their faces was pleasing. It was just to show that they weren't each others enemy but each a friend, and together fought and won against the true villains. So all in all it was an excellent short film without dialogue and yet understood so very well and even a moral of the story.
The film starts with a wide shot of an underground train station with a far light approaching which can only mean one thing and that is a train is arriving. The background has a mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic sound; such as the drumming every 3 to 4 seconds and the train track screeching while the train is in sight. As the train passes the scene fades and introduces the title of the short film 'Strangers'. This attracts the audience very well as it leaves a sign of mystery as to what is going to happen, it's like the train is there one second and then it's gone the next to show that there may be some sudden action involved.
There is a man awaiting the trains' arrival and gets on board the train. He is looked at through mid to close up shot as he enters. He walks through the train looking to sit down and as he finds a seat he notices the person sitting across from him. At first there seems to be a bit of hostility from the man who just sat down and for a reason we are not yet aware of, we then see a close up of the newspaper and how it is written in Arabic. This tells us that the man may be uncomfortable by the presence. The man who was previously seated takes a look up as he turns the page and notices how the man opposite him is dangling the icon of his religion (Judaism) and the star of David around his neck in front of the mans face. This is a never ending problem all over the world between the Middle East and Israel. The staring all of a sudden makes sense and it makes the audience feel like they're right in the middle of it. There is absolutely no dialogue used in the sequence and this helps build up tension through out.
The camera tends to cut very much between them and the train track from the outside and the diegetic sound increases as well. This helps shift the audiences attention from the central focus in order to make it more dramatic later on. Then all of a sudden the man looks up and a very loud drum sound repeatedly (Non-Diegetic) which causes the audience to feel some sort of distress. Mixed in with the drums, whispers are thrown in and are very unclear as they add tension to the scene. The man sheepishly puts away his necklace for a reason unknown at that point in time but revealed when we see them advertising the Nazi emblem. After this takes place and one of the men spray paints the newspaper, the camera work is executed very well and introduces each new face individually, and after each facial expression is revealed it returns once to each of the men previously sitting down to have us feel fear for them as it seems like they are going to experience something unpleasant.
It then comes down to 6/7 strangers literally sitting there in silence with only looks upon each other and not a word of dialogue. Even without dialogue it is clear what is going on. The two men that were already seated don't seem like they're going to speak a word in the event it is out of line and with terrible consequences, so it seemed like they were going to wait it out and hope for some sort of window of opportunity.
The train stops and out of no where as the second who arrived is leaving a traditional Jewish ring tone plays in front of who of all people, it was extremely humorous and at the same time feelings of sorrow, because now his identity is known. Suddenly both men make a break for the final exit, non diegetic music is at a full blast and very rapid cuts between them and the gang, this was very well built and is released through the audience not knowing whether they were going to caught.
The ending was pulled off very well and the fact that they had a smile on their faces was pleasing. It was just to show that they weren't each others enemy but each a friend, and together fought and won against the true villains. So all in all it was an excellent short film without dialogue and yet understood so very well and even a moral of the story.
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