By Liz Tobin.
A Peace of Autumn is a simmering tale of cause and effect which is anything but one dimensional, as the doublespeak film title might also imply. Created, directed and starring the American filmmaker Joseph Arnone this 17 min short film implicates two strangers who seem fated to collide and crash into one another lives as the film gently inclines to the final crescendo.
At this point, of course, you’re thinking “I’ve definitely seen this film before” or at least if not this exact film then one with this exact narrative motif which ultimately makes the audience realise how interconnected we all are and how special our role in this world really is, resulting in a massive case of the feels, or some shit like that.
But! This film does the whole ‘stranger busting into your life and changing it forever’ thing pretty damn well because A Peace of Autumn happens to be a tale of suicide, stranger danger and grit as much as it is an ode to serendipity, hope and making peace with yourself.
The two protagonists are introduced to us from the off when a soft female narration is laid over the images of a starkly lit fully dressed man laying on a mattress with a bloodied face. The narrator states: ‘Sometimes you encounter someone who seems to be deliberately placed in your life in order to alter the path you’ve been walking on’ And so it begins and our degrees of separation are examined.
These two stranger, Cliff and Kora, come to meet in alley later that day when Kora is mugged.
However, the mugger prays with his crucifix beforehand, in a blameless action that seems reminiscent of the Bicycle Thieves. This is where Cliff steps in, not to help Kora with her attacker, but to give her his wallet as a replacement for her own because he doesn’t need it anymore and clearly doesn’t give much of a shit about this world.
We then see them sipping coffee while Kora tries to reach-out to a reluctant and distant Cliff. They meet again and the random connectivity they share becomes more apparent as the wounds of past for both Cliff and Kora become visible.
Eventually, Kora agrees to help Cliff with his own suicide, however, things manage to take a much darker and unexpected turn when it comes to actually executing the task. I don’t want to ruin it so that’s as much as I’m saying folks.
On the whole, this is a seemingly simple story which is predictable right until it’s not, which is why it’s worth the whole 17 minutes it takes to watch it.
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