Review: Worst (2006)

Directed by: Ewald Leuwsha | 9 minutes | short film | Actors: Camilla Siegertsz, Richard Gonlag, Nils Verkooijen

There is no talking in this short film by Ewald Leuwsha. The boy, the butcher and the butcher’s wife don’t say anything to each other. Yet they have a major impact on each other’s lives, especially after an incident in the butcher shop. When the boy draws attention to the butcher’s wife’s wig in front of a shop full of customers, she cannot live with the shame. At the funeral, the butcher has found a way to honor her and comfort herself. The boy (Nils Verkooijen) is portrayed strongly, but is also a bit scary throughout the film. Actually the whole cast has something scary about her: the butcher’s wife (a beautiful role by Camilla Siegertsz) with her mysterious burns, butcher Koen (Richard Gonlag) in his cool demeanor; even the customers of the butcher shop (although we never see them completely) give you a gloomy feeling. The laughter and scoffing as the true hairstyle of the butcher’s wife is revealed scares you as a viewer.

With the very surprising and original ending, the butcher seems to have served his revenge and gotten justice. The beautiful camerawork often distracts from the tragic content of the film, which makes the whole thing lighter, and more beautiful too. But the beautiful here goes hand in hand with the morbid and tragic. The serene images of the butcher’s garden contain this double connotation: the geniality quickly turns into the ominous fact that the cute pigs there unknowingly meet their death. The detailed images of the butcher’s traditional working methods are fascinating and, especially after the end, are also layered. Due to the strong camera work and ditto acting performances, the film is certainly worth watching, but brace yourself for a strange thoughtful at the end, which turns the film into a dark fairytale.