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About Two Strangers Who Meet Five Times English Drama Short Film

Understanding the core: Picturization of the meeting between two strangers at five different situations ages and places.

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Two strangers who meet five times is an English drama series directed by Marcus Markou starring Laurence Spellman, Sargon Yelda, Dimitri Andreas, Alister Cameron in the lead roles. Laurence played the role of Alistair and Sargon played the role of Samir. Dimitri Andreas played the role of old Samir and Alister played the role of old Alistair. The childhood role of Alistair and Samir is done by Gino Azzopardi and Luko Gale respectively. The movie is produced by Sophie Andrea and Sara Buttler. Music is done by Sophie Mojsiejenka. Editing is handled by Paulyne Antoniou. The cinematography is done by Chris Ferguson.

First of all, congratulations to Sophie Andrea Mitchell and Sara Butler for producing this short film which only depends on the content. The content of the short film is very engaging throughout the duration of the short film.

The story is all about how life drives us from birth to death. The director tried to convey this concept using two strangers named Alistair and Samir. Samir is the CEO of a company. Also, he did it with ease. The dialogues are very relevant. Director used dialogue as a great tool to convey the concept. The short film conveys that everything happening in life is having a reason. The short film portrays the character travel of humans.

The Two Strangers Who Meet Five Times English Drama Short Film starts with the tag line “The second time”. A man wearing a jacket and jeans with chewing gum in his mouth walking on a lonely road approaches the cash point. At the cashpoint Samir (who is unknown to Alistair) is withdrawing cash and Alistair is next to him in the queue. Samir is taking more time and Alistair says, ‘Jesus Christ’, impatiently. After few seconds, Alistair tells Samir that if you want to choose the Arabic press back option. After hearing this, Samir takes his card out of the cashpoint and turns. Samir asks Alistair “Have you got any problem?” Then Alistair replies “Are you from ISIS and are you going to take my head off?”.The body language of Alistair is arrogant. From this dialogue, the director tries to break the mindset that terrorists are always from the Muslim community. The vision of the director needs to be appreciated as he tries to break the stereotypical way of thinking.

The next scene starts with the tag line “The third time”. Alistair attends an interview and in the interview, the interviewer told Alistair to meet the CEO and the CEO is none other than Samir. Samir asks Alistair that “Have we met each other already?”. But Alistair refuses and says he doesn’t know him before. It is the third time they are meeting. But Samir remembered the cashpoint incident and rejected him. Alistair asks sorry for that incident but Samir doesn’t accept that and rejected him. The scene is portrayed as an act of revenge by Samir for that cashpoint incident. From this scene, we come to learn that we should be polite to everyone. If Alistair were polite to Samir he might have got the job. Alistair’s arrogance is the only reason that Samir refused to offer the job though Alistair is fit for the job.

Then, Alistair and Samir meet for the fourth time. The scene starts from a lower angle. ‘Spare change please’ is written on a brown torn cardboard. And now Alistair is begging for food and money. Alistair is surrounded by empty waste bottles and plastic bags. Alistair asks Samir for spare change. After seeing him Samir asks “Have we already met each other?” Alistair says “yes”. But Samir doesn’t remember him. Then Alistair explained the interview incident. After hearing this Samir goes to the cashpoint and withdraws some money for Alistair. When Samir gives money to Alistair, Alistair cries loudly and thanked Samir. The background score is very effective in this scene. This scene portrays the character arc of Samir. We come to know that how good Samir is. The helping mind of Samir is that one thing everyone should follow but at the same time we should be mindful of the proverb “Charity begins at home”.

The next scene starts with the tag “The first time” and it is in the park. The scene travels through the years and takes us to the childhood days of Alistair and Samir. The first meeting of Samir and Alistair is in their childhood. Alistair and Samir play with sand in a park. Samir asks Alistair to put the sand in a bucket. They were shaping the sand by putting them in a building-shaped plastic bucket. The scene takes us through our childhood days and reminds us that no matter how big we grow physically or financially, the best and happiest days of our lives are only our childhood days.

The next scene is the fifth and last meeting of Samir and Alistair. At the fifth meeting, Samir and Alistair became old. Samir is in the condition that he can see, hear and think but he can’t express himself. A nurse is working on Samir to improve him. Alistair comes to his house as a volunteer to treat Samir and takes over the job of the nurse to look after Samir. And in this meeting also both don’t remember each other. Alistair asks Samir “Can we go for a walk in the garden tomorrow?”. As Samir doesn’t speak he expresses himself with an extended smile. The major strength of this short film is the climax. The end card appears after Alistair saying “Have we met each other already?” At the end, we become emotionally connected to the movie.

In the starting, both were arrogant to each other but during their childhood and aged days, they were very polite to each other. Samir and Alistair were rude to each other at one point and they help each other at some other point. So we shouldn’t judge people by their first appearance. Life is not stable. It has more struggles. It has more paths. Further, in life we come to meet many people our life, some are good-hearted, some are arrogant, some are innocent. This is life. So, just live happily.

The two lead actors Laurence Spellman and Sargon Yelda have known each other in real life since they were 9 years old having attended the same primary school as children, they met again years later after they were cast in the same play at the National Theatre, London.

‘Two strangers who meet five times’ got B’Oscar award for best dramatic short film in the Beeston film festival in 2018. It also won an award for best hair and makeup at the Birmingham film festival. It won the blue glass award for best short drama and best casting at the blue whiskey independent film festival in 2018. It won the best short film award at Dinard film festival (2018), Hoboken international film festival(2018), Manhattan short film festival(2018), Maryland International film festival(2018), Omaha film festival(2018).

To conclude, ‘Two strangers who meet five times’ is a content-dependent short film that works out well. The positives of the movie are the performance of the actors, the dialogue, and the way by which it is narrated. As a storyline, it is an average attempt but the message they try to convey is the thing that stands out in this short film. The background score and the sounding are very effective. It elevates the emotion in many scenes. The sounding is very specific and unique. The lighting of the film is not so good and in some scenes, the lighting is very poor.

They could have concentrated on details. They could have inserted two or more scenes to establish Alistair’s character arc. Definitely, it could have changed our perception of meeting a stranger. It would make us polite to everyone. There is no cost for being kind and everyone should be kind to everyone. So it is the film everyone should watch. These are about the Two Strangers Who Meet Five Times English Drama Short Film.

These are my ratings:

Direction – I want to give away 8/10
Script – I want to give away 8.5/10
Screenplay – I want to give away 7.5/10
Editing – I want to give away 7.5/10
Cinematography – I want to give away 8/10
Lighting – I want to give away 8.5/10
Music – I want to give away 8.5/10
Sound effects – I want to give away 8/10
Dubbing – I want to give away 8/10
Artists acting – I want to give away 8.5/10
Climax – I want to give away 8.5/10
Creativity and Innovation – I want to give away 7/10

My overall rating is 8.5/10

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