Review of A Short Film About Love (1988) by Usama A — 26 Aug 2010

It's all about love and how it vaguely is apart from sin. The fuzzy line between these two, the gray nature of humanity and love which makes all equations unequal, all are what the movie is about.

I don't care about how Tomek has fallen in love but, I believe the way Magda -who is supposed to be the beloved- proceeds through this love odyssey and raises to the other end of being the one who looses her heart, is the heart of the story. I think, according to the movie, originality is with "Love" and "Sin" is identified not by itself but through the presence or absence of "Love" i.e. wherever the "Love" disappears, the "Sin" comes onto the stage and as the heart is illuminated by love, the darkness of sin is gone. It is only after being introduced to the love of Tomek - the pure, selfless love - Magda rejects her former lover - who is far from being in love. Later at the final scene, Magda reaches to the such selflessness that begins to see herself from Tomek's point of view and finds herself with Tomek filling the absence of love on her empty moment of loneliness. Being such a selfless lover who approaches herself from beloved's point of view, Magda finds her self being loved by Tomek. Here, Magda is eider the beloved or the one fallen in love.