This is an amazing short from Director Zaid Adham. From the bleak, scene-setting intro shots to the grim conclusion Minus 1 will take you on an uncomfortable trip into a young woman's life.
There is no question that sound is incredibly important in this short and was one of the components that I enjoyed most. I feel it really set the tone from the beginning and helped increase the tension throughout.
Despite low-budget, this is a well produced short. The light and angle of shots are both interesting and thought out.
I caught one of the earliest screenings of this provocative short film at the National Film Board of Canada in Toronto.
Gritty, well cast, well directed. A bit slow at first but the pacing picks up appropriately to bring an unnerving, dark look into the realities of life as a child of an addicted, abusive parent.
In a time when the media is content to peddle trite, comedic pap and audiences are satisfied with movies that offer little substance, Zaid Adham's film, "Minus 1", is a stark look at a seamy reality and awareness that not everyone survives. Teenage addiction, prostitution and domestic violence, and the hopelessness engendered by them, are complex themes to confront and difficult issues to film with any degree of believability.
