By Jason Kerr
4 Little Angels is a short written and directed by Julio Marti Zahonero. It gives us a brief look at one of the many issues within the care system. The best we can hope for when we are ready to depart this life is to be in the company of loved ones, if that is not possible then the least we can hope for is to be in the company of someone who cares.
Dani is given the task of seeing the night through with Marisa who has cancer and is in the final stage of palliative care. Curiosity, disrespect and an overall lack of empathy guide Dani through the night. He looks like he would rather be anywhere else other than watching over this moribund lady as her breathing labors from time to time edging closer to death.
The warm setting reminds us of that old relative, the personal items, and a ticking clock, all of this adds to the sense of the limitations of mortality. Marisa’s personal items become toys for Dani, who then takes out his phone, the curse of the modern day, and continues to commit further acts of disrespect, dismissing his responsibility.
Zahonero introduces fear into the room at different times, each time building on the other, you sense the room is becoming something else, something different and unsettling. Dani senses that too, his phone, that tool of disrespect, soon becomes a conduit for the terror that is to come.
4 Little Angels screens as part of Panic Fest 2024.
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