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By Daniella Dahoui
Dir: Dayyan Eng
Based on a true story, the Chinese short film Bus 44 starts with a man hopping onto a bus, only for the bus to be hijacked by two highway robbers right afterwards. After taking their money, one of the robbers decides to pull the young female bus driver away so that he can assault her. Seeing no one on the bus doing anything to save her, the main character gets out of his seat and tries to take action.
A prominent theme in the film has to do with choice: What it says about that person when they make a certain choice, how someone’s choices affect their own fate, and how these choices also affect other people’s course of actions. With all that said, the story sets out both a very optimistic side and dark side of humanity. This all makes more sense once you watch the film. It’s only 11 minutes long, and it’s a very well told story that all leads to something unexpected, which is why I’d rather not give away too much.
Bus 44 won awards at the Venice Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, and was invited to Cannes Film Festival. This is the first time a Chinese short film won in all three festivals’ history. Having watched this film, I can most definitely see why. This is a terrific film, and you should watch it immediately if you haven’t done so yet.
The whole story is so shocking, particularly the part where no one else, except for the main character, got off the bus to save the girl. It’s really tragic that this is a true story. Thanks for sharing it with us, Daniella.