Review: Stop! (2010)

Directed by: Gustave de Kervern, Sébastien Rost | 11 minutes | comedy, short film | Actors: Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Philippe Duquesne, Augustin Legrand, Yolande Moreau, Stéphanie Pillonca, Rémy Roubakha, David Salles, Fred Testot

Adversity in life is something most people naturally try to avoid. However, it can have positive effects in some areas. This applies not least to Art. The most beautiful paintings and pieces of music originated from a situation of personal drama. Not infrequently these works are permeated with pain or melancholy. Filmmaker Gustave de Kervern and the main characters in his short cinematic look at the economic crisis, “Ya basta!”, Do not give up for a change and give a comical twist to the social unrest.

“Ya basta” does a lot in just ten minutes. It is an indictment of the way society (in many countries) deals with the weaker members of society. It is a fraternal story about a group of friends who manage to bring their great plan to a successful conclusion. And it’s also a surprising, comical variation on old-fashioned heist movies like “Ocean’s Eleven”. It is not uncommon for robbers to be portrayed as the heroes in a film and usually you as a viewer really hope that they get away with it, but in this case the “gun factor” is very high.

When the main characters – the residents of a shelter for the mentally handicapped – are introduced, and it is made clear through a conversation with a visiting official that the doors of the home should be closed, the situation seems rather hopeless. The games that the residents engage in on the grassy fields in front of the building also seem to be nothing more than convulsions and symptoms of an under-financed institution. Someone who is angling a bit with the help of a clothes hanger; a participant in a game of softball lying motionless on the floor, with a ball in her outstretched arm: it all makes a somewhat shabby, hopeless impression. But nothing is what it seems, as it turns out later. All those strange games together form a sophisticated training program for the robbery that the residents and their caretakers have devised. It is very funny to see this cheerful group suddenly in action and to see the unsuspecting employees of the museum making fun of it. The “weaker” of society are for once the strongest and get – ok, take – finally what is their due. Justice.