Short Film Analysis- 'Sold'

Sold is a short film directed by Nadia Attia, and has been publicized throughout the BBC network. 'Sold' is about the aspirations and hopes of a down on luck male, whose luck suddenly changes whilst watching a surreal shopping channel.

The film does well to convey the structures and techniques that we commonly associate with a short film. For instance, we have a linear narrative in the sense that it is in real time, whereas the main thing we see in the film is a circular narrative, something ever presemt in the films we have watched, as we see that the film ends where the plot started, being his neighbour coming ask for cookoing utensils, and ending with him buying the same cooking utensils she had asked for previously, this can be labelled as a narrative twist, which is also synonymous with the cult of short films. 'Sold' is also has an open ended narrative as ultimately it lacks resolution, which in a sense is an advantage to the author who is able to reach out to many different audiences with many different expectations on how they would envisage their ending in the way they wish it to, mainly being that the man ends up with the woman.

What's more, we see many cinematic technique, synonymous with feature length films in 'Sold'. Firstly, when in the main protagonists appartment, we see clear high key lighting which in a sense shows the realism of the communal spirit in Britain, the fact that he is secluded shows he is unwilling to live up to the communal spirit. The further contrast we see is with regards to the telivision screen which is a juxtaposition to the rest of the flat which is grey and dull, whereas the screen is bright and almost shows the 'promised' land. Equally, the idea is that 4th wall is broken as it seems the auctioneer is directly talking to the protagonist and the audience, which does bring a surreal element to the film.

The idea of this being a traditional short film is furthered by the simplistic way that titles are utilised in the film, they are used to open and close the film and are in black in white, which is something of low cost and ineffective, as well presenting the full credits.

In addition to this, we can relate this film to a variety of British theme, nominally consumerism and the cult it has, the fact that people sit down everyday to watch tv to buy arguably unimportant things, showing idleness. On a more contemporary scale we can see the lack of community spirit, shown through the fact that he was reluctant to even open the door to his neighbour.