Dania Bdeir’s “Warsha” is one of my favorite kinds of short films. In a tight fifteen minutes, it takes the viewer on a real journey of one person’s interior feelings of entrapment, confinement, freedom, and liberation, while also providing unbearable suspense and an exhilarating surprise ending that makes the white-knuckle moments worth the agony. It easily remains one of my very favorite films I ever programmed for the Chicago Critics Film Festival and demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible.
Now that I’ve hyped it, you should just go and watch it before reading any further. Bdeir’s story focuses on Mohammad (Khansa), a Syrian refugee working on a construction site in Beirut. He lives in a small shelter with many other workers who take a van every morning to a site with the creakiest elevator, which takes them to whatever floor they work on that day. None of these men ever have a moment of privacy. They are constantly around each other, getting on each other’s nerves, and look at their job as a kind of curse. At one point, Mohammad learns the site has lost their sixth crane operator, and for good reason: It is the site’s most dangerous job. Mohammad sees it as an opportunity.
Why is the crane job so dangerous? It sits atop what will eventually be a skyscraper. Many believe that to be assigned that job is to receive a death sentence; Bdeir films it as such, keeping Mohammad in the shadows as he walks the corridors to his fate, then bathing him in unforgiving sunlight as he gets to the bridge that leads to the crane. Why would anyone want this particular job?
This is where I have to warn you that this is one of those terrifying movies that deals with heights. It’s a phobia of mine, and no matter how many times I see certain films, I become unnerved at what I’m watching and feeling. No matter how dumb the movie (“Fall”), no matter how funny (“Nirvana The Band The Show The Movie,” the “Moonlighting” pilot), no matter if I know everything will turn out okay (“Die Hard,” “The Walk” in IMAX 3-D… I could go on), any movie that deals with heights and ordinary people dealing with the danger atop tall buildings and structures, I freeze up. Or anyone just casually sitting on a high ledge (Emma Stone in “Birdman”). Stop! The tension turns me into a whimpering scaredy-cat. “Warsha” belongs on that list of films that do it the best.
There is another component to the film that I will leave for you to discover. Bdeir’s skillfully made short is a fine character study that, through Mohammad’s eyes, is almost wordless. We get expository dialogue about the crane from the men around him, but Bdeir keeps the camera focused on Mohammad’s face and Khansa’s eyes tell the story with captivating subtlety. We are drawn into his inner world without being fully let in until the very end.
Normally in this feature I have a Q&A with the director, but Bdeir has an extra treat in store for this film on its Vimeo page. Go into the audio settings, and you can hear Bdeir’s commentary track where she gets into the technical aspects of the film (you will wonder “how did they do this?”), the casting of Khansa and the film’s reception (questions I would normally ask here). Give it a listen if you want to learn more about this extraordinary movie.
