Bevisbyrden (Burden of Proof)
2021 · 9m · Norway
Directed by Ivar Aase
Genres: drama
Tones: dark, melancholic, provocative, tense
A woman named Anna confronts her ex-boyfriend Robert on a pedestrian bridge in Oslo, alleging past abuse and rape — the entire encounter captured in a single locked-off take from a distant, elevated camera while diegetic phone-recording audio puts the listener in the position of a witness. With the camera never moving closer, the film places the credibility question entirely on the audience: it is her word against his.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Nine minutes, single locked-off elevated wide, phone-recorded audio of a rape accusation on a bridge. The form is the politics — refusing close-ups so you can't comfortably take a side is rigorous and brutal.
Aase locks the camera distant and elevated for the entire nine minutes, with confrontation reaching us only through phone-recording audio — the formal gesture forces audience-as-witness with rigor close to Östlund or Haneke. Considerable.
Entire 9-minute film as a single locked-off wide take from an elevated camera far from the action, with confrontation heard only through diegetic phone-recording audio — that rejection of close-ups and conventional intimacy is exactly the moral-positional argument the subject demands. Brutal craft.
Reviews
One of the most arresting and evocative short films I have seen in a long while.
Even if it's hard to watch, this is a vitally important film confronting societal problems.
Festivals
- Bergen International Film Festival 2021, Honorable Mention
- Nordisk Panorama Film Festival 2022
- Interfilm Berlin 2022, Best Sound Design