Short, Different, and Simple: "Not Yet" Short Film Review

The "Not Yet" short film is the first work by Arian Vazirdaftari and can be regarded as a successful short film. The story revolves around a father and mother who celebrate their daughter's birthday via video call. Their daughter has emigrated abroad for her studies and is unaware of the events at home.

The cinematography and editing of this film greatly impressed me, to the extent that I repeatedly watched the film around the 4:20 mark, enjoying the excellent cinematography and engaging editing. This aspect distinguishes the film.

At the beginning of the film, the father (Farhad Aslani) and the mother (Pantea Panahiha) sit together, looking at a laptop. On the table beside the laptop, there is a birthday cake with a candle showing the number 21. They talk to their daughter Hasti, light the candles for her, and she blows them out. They applaud her, have a brief chat, and when Hasti thanks them and wants to leave, the mother quickly closes the laptop, not giving the father a chance to say goodbye.

From this point on, the two seem to become different characters. The father removes the candles from the cake and, after a few seconds of silence, asks, "Do you want some cake?" The mother promptly replies, "No, put it in the box, give it to the neighbors..."

While we hear the mother's dialogue, the image splits into two. Here, we realize the parents are separated, and through further dialogue, we learn that Hasti is unaware of this separation. This division of the screen adds to the film's beauty, showing two individuals who are both alone.

In the "Not Yet" short film the dialogues indicate that apart from Hasti, nothing remains common between them, exactly as the image showed us in the first 4 minutes and 20 seconds of the film. The fact that the image reveals what has happened before the dialogue between the parents is a directorial strength. This short film stands out from others in its genre, especially with its unique cinematography showing the mother on the right and the father on the left.

The dialogue between the parents suggests that they might still love each other but have accepted the separation. The father's inclination is more apparent, but the mother, though seemingly indifferent, shows her attraction to her ex-husband in a scene where she mutters something under her breath. In that scene, the man talks to her about the suitcase she is packing, trying to strike up a conversation. When the argument escalates, he says, "You've already made up your mind." After he walks away, the woman quietly says, "Not yet!"

In the end, as both look out of the windows from different rooms, we again see their only common point in the two frames side by side, which becomes a single frame. This reflects the single point of commonality that keeps many couples together. Short, different, and simple; in its beauty.

Shayan Iroomloo Tabrizi