Ever find money on the street? How long before you reach down, pick it up, and pocket it? A similar series of questions open La Huida, setting off an intricately displayed sequence of events. Jumping freely from action movie to documentary to educational video, with a running time of ten minutes, this Spanish short film is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat.
A bill worth fifty euros lays on the pavement. How it got there is a mystery that will be unraveled for us by the deep and raspy voice of the quintessential “narrator.” He leads us through a series of clues, objectives, digressions, and characters that include a head of broccoli, a masked man running down the street, and a dog leash, just to name a few. Though seemingly unrelated to one another, the sum total of these items will tell us why the money lays undisturbed on the concrete. Once the elements of the story have been outlined, the narrator disappears, the pacing slows, and we watch as all the visual cues fall like dominos.
Ultimately, Victor Carrey’s La Huida is the story of a heist gone wrong, told through the objects surrounding the escape rather than the robbers or the victims. The film is at first a collage, a fun excursion through random people, places, and things, including negligible yet fascinating details that make up their construction. The second half turns into meditative puzzle construction, where all the questions posed are satisfyingly resolved. Enjoy.
