Short Calf Muscle
2019 · 13m · Netherlands
Directed by Victoria Warmerdam
Genres: comedy, dark comedy, LGBTQ+
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic
Anders, a taller-than-average Dutch man in his 30s, wakes up one morning to discover that everyone around him — colleagues, family, even his boyfriend — sincerely perceives him to be a gnome. As he tries to correct the assumption, the film skewers the polite condescension of well-meaning allyship.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Warmerdam commits fully to an absurd premise that should collapse under its own weight, but instead uses it as a Trojan horse for something genuinely subversive about how people perform sympathy while erasing you — everyone's being *nice* about the delusion, which is somehow more cutting than outright hostility.
The film's restraint is its formal rigor; by refusing to break the gnome conceit or wink at the audience, Warmerdam situates herself in a lineage of deadpan absurdist comedy that recalls Haneke's control, proving the premise isn't a gimmick but a disciplined tool for interrogating social performance.
The single choice that makes this work is the casting of a genuinely tall actor and then never acknowledging the visual contradiction — that locked commitment to the absurd from every actor, never wavering, is what transforms a high-concept joke into something with real satirical teeth on a modest budget.
Reviews
It is for that reason I genuinely do not believe it is possible to make a better short comedy.
An absurdist black comedy that skewers perception, class society, allyship, and racism across Dutch culture.
Festivals
- Iris Prize Film Festival 2020, Iris Prize (Best LGBT+ Short)
- Mexico International Film Festival 2020, Best Comedy
- Kolkata Shorts International Film Festival 2020, Best Film