The Last Birthday
2025 · 4m · France
Directed by Lucie Bourdeu
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic
Commissioned by the Valentin Haüy association to spotlight an absurdity in the French healthcare system, this short takes a gloriously absurd, over-the-top approach to its subject.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A commissioned public-health satire that swings for the absurd instead of the preachy—Bourdeu's refusal to make this earnest or digestible is exactly the kind of subversive move that actually lands critique harder than a sermon ever could.
The formal discipline here is what elevates it: a 4-minute commission could've been a PSA, but the deliberate escalation and tonal control suggest a filmmaker aware of satire's lineage from Buñuel forward, situating the grotesque within a considered aesthetic argument.
In four minutes with a specific institutional target, one directorial choice—likely the commitment to escalation rather than restraint—transforms a policy complaint into something that actually breathes; that tonal conviction is what separates a brief from a film.
Reviews
Das gelingt auch auf absolut herrlich absurd-übertriebene Art und Weise (auch wenn es ein bisschen braucht, um rein zu kommen).