Whenever I write about a short film, a certain sentence comes to mind: A short film is the art of fitting entire worlds into a limited amount of time. I don’t know whether this sentence belongs to me or was said by someone else, but I always think of it whenever I write about a short film, because it is true. A short film is, first and foremost, the first platform on which a director can showcase their talent, much like a contestant on Got Talent stepping onto the stage and having to prove themselves in a matter of minutes. You either mess it up and get kicked off the stage, or, as Javid Rezai does with The Belladonna, you manage to turn all your experience and creative ingenuity into a brief stage performance that leaves the judges reaching for the Golden Buzzer. And that is precisely what Rezai accomplishes.
I am not making the stage analogy just for the sake of it. After all, the film tells the story of Stella, a burlesque dancer. It takes you on a dance along the blurred line between reality and fiction, while simultaneously immersing you in the mind of someone struggling with paranoid thoughts. Yet this journey is presented in a way that befits the world of a burlesque dancer: dazzling, vibrant, and bursting with color.
The Belladonna explores themes similar to those of Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 film Black Swan. However, I would go so far as to say that its portrayal of an artist who loses herself to jealousy, paranoia, and the desperate desire to prove her worth surpasses even Black Swan. Of course, it borrows certain themes, but this is neither cheap imitation nor mere copying. Rather, it feels driven by the ambition to take what it draws from its predecessor and elevate it to an entirely different level.
When telling a story about someone struggling with paranoia and a fractured sense of identity, you need to handle the camera with as much agility as possible. The film does exactly that, masterfully plunging us into a state of complete visual chaos. Complementing this visual frenzy is Emmy Ren’s cinematography, which captures the suffocating atmosphere of the Belladonna Club and the artificial glamour of the stage world with a certain elegance.
The only thought that stayed with me after watching The Belladonna was that this felt like the first major breakthrough in the career of a director destined to go very far. Yes, I am almost certain of it.
