You and Me, Before and After
2021 · 11m · Australia
Directed by Madeleine Gottlieb
Tones: darkly comic, melancholic, tender
Two adult Jewish sisters with a painful shared history agree to get their first tattoos together, and stuck side-by-side in the artist's chair with nothing to do but talk, they confront a relationship that is as raw as it is funny. As the tattoos take shape, the work becomes a quiet act of healing.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Everyone expects a wound-and-healing narrative when you put scars and tattoos in the same room, but Gottlieb refuses the obvious catharsis—instead she lets the funny, fractured talk between sisters do the actual repair work, which is weirder and better.
A formally composed study in intimate space and temporal constraint that recalls the deliberate chamber work of peers like Lynne Ramsay; the tattoo chair becomes both literal frame and metaphorical pressure point, with editing that knows exactly when to hold and when to cut.
The decision to shoot the sisters' reflections in the mirror while the needle works—letting us see their faces react while their bodies stay still—transforms a simple beauty procedure into genuine emotional archaeology, doing more with one compositional choice than most shorts manage in their entire runtime.
Reviews
It's funny and heartfelt which is my favourite hitting zone.
Festivals
- Toronto International Film Festival 2021
- Melbourne International Film Festival 2021
- Flickerfest 2022
- Aspen Shortsfest 2022
- Palm Springs International ShortFest 2022
- St Kilda Film Festival 2022, Best Achievement in Acting
- Heart of Gold Short Film Festival 2022, Best Screenplay
- AACTA Awards 2021
- Australian Directors Guild Awards 2022