Having won a number of awards in festivals like the Filmapalooza and Chelsea, “Requiem for a Martyr” is a very interesting effort by its two directors to give an epic hypostasis to a 9-minute short.
Requiem for a Martyr review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative
The story takes place in Ming Dynasty China and begins with two Jesuit priests, Father Paul and Father Thomas, with the former carrying the latter, who is injured, in an obvious effort to escape from someone. They soon reach an establishment where the owners of the house seem to have contradicting opinions about what they should do with them. At the same time, their daughters seem to have an agreement with the duo, to escape after the two priests manage to steal something that belonged to the faith. In the end, Father Paul, a former Crusader, decides to stay back in order to delay the Chinese who are bound to be on the heels of the rest. Eventually, the Assassin appears and Father Paul has to decide if he is willing to forgo his oath for non-violence in order to save his friend.
Implementing an approach that could be described as ritualistic on occasion, with the symbolism and the religious undertones adding significantly to the narrative, Scott and Willmont are trying to induce their short with a sense of epicness. The result, considering the rather brief duration of the film, definitely works, with “Requiem for a Martyr” including all the elements of an epic movie. Particularly the last scene, where black and white clash, is quite impressive, with Marvin Bouvet as Father Paul and Zhuqiwen Gu as the Assassin adding much to the overall sense the sequence emits.
Kirtan Hummelen's cinematography also finds its apogee here, in an overall effort which does have some issues, though, as the images appear too bright and ‘foggy' on occasion. On the other hand, the voyeuristic moments that appear during the dialogue of the couple, are quite intriguing to watch. Yaoyun Qi, Kaiqi Wu and Junqiu Yu's editing works well too, implementing a rather fast pace that manages to condense a whole story in just a bit more than 9 minutes, while the placement of the flashbacks is rather timely. Of course, some gaps in a story that is rushed do exist, but not to a point to harm the quality of the film significantly.
“Requiem for a Martyr” is definitely an accomplished short, particularly in the technical department, where its quality is much above the average usually met in such short films. It would definitely be interesting to see what the directors could do with a bigger duration and a bigger budget in their hands.
