Over

 Over

'Over' is a short film that tells the story of a man from Angola who falls from a plane into a neighborhood in North London. The story is told with reverse chronology so that it starts with flowers being laid and blood being hosed from the street and ends with the death itself. The film is almost entirely silent which creates a haunting atmosphere and makes the film much more real and documentary-esque. The silence of the film allows for a jump-scare when the body falls from the sky which creates a much more affecting moment. Nearly every shot is a static wide shot which forces the viewer to watch the scene from a distance with minimal understanding of the situation. Exceptions to this include the close ups of the flowers and dramatic close ups of various evidence bags from the death which provide clues to the audience as to the nature of the situation. Slow editing accompanies these distant shots making use of infrequent edits to add to the painfully still style. Lighting is naturalistic to maintain the documentary style of film-making. Performance is also highly limited with dialogue being barely audible therefore adding to the ambiguity felt by the audience. 

The film subtly makes a political statement which is solidified by the context provided by the end shots. The ending of the film tells us that this is based on a true story of a man falling to his death whilst trying to enter the country. The film asserts its message with haunting shots of joggers running past the man's body rather than bombarding the audience with aggressive political statements. Wide shots of the public taking no notice of the man emphasize his invisible nature in this cold, British suburbia. The close-ups of evidence bags also provide some context to the man's identity as we see foreign money and a photo of what we assume is his family. These details humanize him in a way and create more sympathy for him. 

The reverse nature of the narrative forces the audience to attempt to piece together the story with the minimal details that are provided. Time stamps are on many of the shots but it is not until the fall that it becomes clear that the story is being told in reverse. Police cars, evidence bags and then eventually the body provide more and more context to the story but once again, it is not until the fall that the nature of the death becomes apparent.