EN SERIO, NENA
2025 · 3m · España
Directed by Melania Van
Tones: contemplative, tense
Saúl receives an unexpected call from Carmen and leaps out of bed in a hurry; he doesn't know what she is about to reveal, but he senses it is something decisive — and after this night, neither of their lives will be the same again.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Three minutes of a man getting out of bed shouldn't work, but Van's refusal to show us Carmen or explain the 'decisive' moment is genuinely subversive — it's a mystery that doesn't owe the audience a reveal, and that's rare enough to be interesting.
The film's formal restraint echoes the phone-call revelations of early Haneke, using absence and anticipation as compositional tools; it's a small gesture toward a larger tradition of cinematic withholding.
The entire short hinges on Van's choice to keep the camera on Saúl's face during the call — his micro-expressions and physical hesitation do the storytelling work, and that singular decision transforms a premise that could've been predictable into something genuinely unnerving.