The short film is about a young drug addict who seems to be trapped in a time loop. It is remarkably similar to the quarantine situation that we are all presently stuck in. While at one hand time is moving forward, on the other hand, the world seems to have stopped still and every day feels essentially like a repetition of the same day over and over again. Perhaps, the director already had this parallel drawn in his mind when he was making this film, we are not sure of it. But one cannot ignore the shadow of resemblance it casts on the subject matter.
“Trapped” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative
Although the story is quite ordinary and doesn't pack that much of a punch on the viewers because of its predictability, it is surprisingly detailed. The sincere efforts behind rearranging the scattered mess on the floor of the room when the protagonist leaves it and walks along the hallway out into the outer courtyard space in a state of drugged stupor, is worth appreciating. It has also come to our notice that the film avoids the use of dialogues. Despite the absence of any verbal language, there is no lack of expression or communication of the circumstances at hand.
We cannot compare it to a dream sequence since drugs are involved, yet we are made to wonder whether the time loop is real or a figment of fantasy created in the mind of one under the influence of psychedelics, such as a kind of elaborate hallucination. The music accompanying the scenes are by themselves quite a trip, setting the tone of the whole cinematic mood. Especially the slow thudding of heart beats and the sound of heavy breathing in the titular scene, builds up the tension for the audience to expect a kind of suspense in the scenes that follow. The sudden clang of the metal keys falling on the ground serves as a jarring effect that breaks his trance and finally sets the loop into motion.
Chromatic aberration has been used effectively to emphasize the protagonist's delirium and intoxicated state, particularly how the music in the background seems to shift with the shift in the cinematic moods, it helps to prepare the stage. Cinematography has done a good job in capturing the little details in close-ups and by gradually moving the camera closer to the subject in focus. One instance of a well-thought-out directorial moment is the decision to show the protagonist taking out his drug supplies from the inside of the drawer, resulting in a depth of field and creating the basis of the narrator's perspective as being distinct from that of the protagonist. His apparent disbelief and shock at seeing the room in utter chaos, is what sets the viewer's anticipation.
Overall, in spite of being slightly predictable, the film does a good job in developing a plot with a time loop successfully.
