Gym Patriot
2019 · 7m · UK
Directed by Slobodan Karajlovic
Tones: darkly comic, provocative, tense
After swimming at the gym, a white man named Gavin heads to the showers and becomes unnerved when he hears an Arabic voice singing from the next cubicle, escalating into a tense confrontation that exposes the bubbling subtext of everyday prejudice.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Two guys in adjacent shower cubicles, one freaks out about Arabic singing — the discomfort is genuine and the setting is at least specific. The 'how will he retaliate?' framing reeks of issue-of-the-week but the staging has nerve.
Showers as a stage for racial unease — the vulnerability of near-nudity is a smart formal pressure to apply to the Detainment-style social-issue short. I am wary of seven-minute treatments of large subjects, but the staging is precise.
Seven minutes confined to gym showers using physical vulnerability to amplify a racially charged encounter — that's a setting choice that does enormous structural work for free. The Klipist copy frames it as 'bubbling subtext of prejudice' which suggests the film resists easy resolution.
Festivals
- London Short Film Festival 2021
- San Diego International Film Festival 2020
- Kerry International Film Festival 2020
- International Short Film Festival Detmold
- Adirondack Film Festival
- Bolton Film Festival 2021