Dirt Devil 550 XS
2020 · 17m · Switzerland
Directed by Rolf Hellat
Tones: absurdist, contemplative, darkly comic
Seven roommates in a Swiss shared apartment convene their routine communal meeting to vote on buying a new vacuum cleaner — the Dirt Devil 550 XS versus a Dyson — only for the trivial consumer decision to unravel into a deeply earnest, extended debate about democracy, coexistence, and interpersonal dynamics.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Seven Swiss roommates vote on a vacuum cleaner for seventeen minutes — sounds insufferable on paper, sounds great if executed right. The fact that it's based on a real 45-minute meeting suggests it knows the joke is the duration.
A 17-minute vacuum-cleaner vote becomes a Swiss-democracy microcosm — Roy Andersson would recognize the impulse. The director's biography (16 actual roommates) gives the conceit teeth.
Seventeen minutes at a single kitchen table where a mundane vacuum-cleaner vote becomes a microcosm of democratic dysfunction, directly inspired by the director's real 45-minute roommate debate — that autobiographical fidelity is the dramatic backbone. The conceit lives or dies on the ensemble's commitment.
Reviews
Writer/director Rolf Hellat transforms this mundane situation into an exploration of complicated group dynamics, contrasting personalities, and the workings of democracy, infused with humor and an incredibly sharp screenplay.
The film examines consumer society with restraint and compassion toward its characters, bringing humor and extreme precision to the mundane.
Festivals
- Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur 2020
- Curta Cinema Rio de Janeiro International Short Film Festival 2020
- Solothurner Filmtage 2021
- Portland International Film Festival 2021
- Brooklyn Film Festival 2021
- Palm Springs International ShortFest 2021
- Filmkunstfest MV Schwerin 2021, Best Short Film
- Film Festival Vevey 2021, Audience Award
- Bamberger Kurzfilmtage 2022, Audience Award