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Mehdi Shiri's Still Life (2015)

As the object falls apart and reassembles, the memories fragment, too, giving an odd mixture of brightness and melancholy that never quite resolves itself.

Landing page for Mehdi Shiri's Still Life (2015) with the character in the middle and the accolades of various awards around it

NOTE: This Monday short was originally posted on August 27, 2018. We are re-uploading Peter Hemminger's original Monday Shorts until further notice.

Although it's pieced together from memories, Mehdi Shiri's 2015 film Still Life doesn't feel especially nostalgic. There's a sense of attachment, sure—the ending narration makes that clear—but its rotating figures, with their bright colours and shifting contexts, are more of an appreciation of moments past than a longing to experience them again. Nostalgia isn't always a bad thing (Nate Milton's "Feelings" is a perfect example of a film that uses it well), but it can be a crutch. Shiri takes a different tack, imagining the memories associated with objects, and questioning what happens when the objects break. As the object falls apart and reassembles, the memories fragment, too, giving an odd mixture of brightness and melancholy that never quite resolves itself.

dir. Medhi Shiri

syn. any good that has to do something whit your life has a story of you inside of it , maybe a short memory

2015