Writer/director Angad Aulakh swings for the fences with his fantastic sci-fi short film Aurora. For the most part, he succeeds, especially visually. It’s a short film that deserves your time.
Stranded in the farthest reaches of space. When on a mission, the sole survivor, Freddie (Guy Kent), of a catastrophic accident faces a divine reckoning he never imagined.
Visually, Aurora is quite the spectacle, one that goes above and beyond what you would expect to watch in a short film. There are massive swings taken here in Aulakh’s story, with some working very well and some that don’t, but that is purely because of budget and time. What remains throughout is how interesting the concept and story are.
The film is filled with mystery that leaves you uneasy. It’s so rare to see a science fiction film take such a visual leaning, and the entire production deserves its flowers for what they achieve here. One of Aurora’s key successes is its choice to go with black and white in its cinematography. It works here, tremendously so in fact, to the point that you can’t actually imagine the film in colour.
Guy Kent does strong work as our lead, Freddie; he has a difficult job because he’s mostly on his own in every scene. He pulls it off well and adds the appropriate amount of pain and fear that Freddie should have in this scenario. What is so impressive is that he doesn’t overact. It strikes a strong balance, making what is happening feel real. Another success is the sound and score from sound designer Garrett Peters and composer Tim Despic. Like Aulakh, they go big with it, and it really brings home that spectacle idea, as well as the sense of loss Freddie is going through.
By focusing so much on the visuals and Kent’s performance, it highlights how light the script is. Not that this is a bad thing. Aurora has a purposefully simple concept that lets everything around it shine. Add to the fact that it is a short film, a dense script would perhaps take away or complicate what we are witnessing. This is where the film really wears its influences on its sleeve. It’s a risk, but one that Aulakh inevitably pulls off despite the volume of ambiguity thrown at it.
Aurora throws a lot of mystery at us. What exactly was Freddie’s mission? What was being held from him? The questions stick with you, and you wish more had been told to inform us of the story and deepen our enjoyment. Perhaps that would happen if there were a longer version. But with 15 minutes of runtime. You understand why they couldn’t flesh out this side of the story.
For a short, it is bold how much Aurora goes for spectacle and succeeds so well at accomplishing something emotional. Could it have delved a little more into the story? Sure. Especially for how big that ending is. But as it is, it’s still a strong film that invests.
★★★ 1/2
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