Dan Fry | Bruise / 2014

empathy

by Douglas Messerli

 

Dan Fry (screenwriter and director) Bruise / 2014 [10 minutes]

 

There is really nothing much to be said about Australian director Dan Fry’s 2014 short film Bruise after viewing it. The film says it all.

     Dedicated to the “LGBTQ communities of Russia, Uganda, Nigeria, Pakistan, Nigeria, India, The United Arab Emirates, Oceania, Jamaica—84 countries where it’s illegal or you are beaten just for being born differently! [sic]” Fry’s film forces you for 9 ½ minutes to sit through the pain, both physical and psychological, of a man (played by Fry) who has just been beaten in a garage. Bloody red marks appear across his face and upper chest, but it is apparent that his entire body has been heavily bruised. And when we later hear the poundings at several points throughout the film, we know it was a truly severe beating, with perhaps the use of some of the weapons such as a wrench appearing in the foreground upon the cement floor on which the subject has been left to suffer. He can hardly stand.

     But even worse occurs upon his return to his apartment as he washes his face, showers, attempts to dress, etc. The pain is still emotional and the bodily pains are still devastating. As he attempts to leave his apartment, he cannot even bring himself to open the door.

     Along with the grinding electronic music by Joseph Roy and Johan Venter, the central figure is forced to relive those painful moments over and over, as we gradually begin to piece together some of the details. Although we never see the assailants, who have apparently left by the time what we witness takes place, we also discover another male (Venter), sitting nearly naked strapped to chair with the letter Q (presumably for “queer”) written boldly across his forehead, who is made to watch the central figure’s beating.

     There is liquid surrounding the space on which the beaten man lies, and we can only wonder if it represents his own urine or if there has also been, as in many such cases, a group urination activity to further demean the victim.

     Finally, the suffering and bruised man is able to open his patio door, but even then he finds himself unable, at least within the confines of the movie, to enter the outdoor space. He is clearly still terrified to return to open space, as if he has almost forced him back into the closet in which he has psychologically-speaking been ordered to return.

     It is a painful film, but as the filmmakers remind us, we do not feel the real the pains but only the mental anguish. The only thing we can offer this poor man and the other forced to watch the horrible event is our empathy represented by our watching this film to the very end.

 

Los Angeles, October 12, 2023

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (October 2023).