“Shorta” Digs Deeply Into Discrimination

Release Date：Mar/19/2021

Genre：Action/Crime/Drama

Director：Frederik Louis、HviidAnders Ølholm

Cast：Jacob Lohmann、Simon Sears

Viola's Rating：7.4

Black Lives Matter Movement started in 2013 in the U.S. as a result of the killing of Trayvon Martin, and was later heated up because of the killing of Eric Garner and the murder of George Floyd. However, discrimination doesn’t exist in the U.S. alone. Danish feature film “Shorta” not only digs into the issue of discrimination and racism in particular, but also addresses the difficulties the police face on duty. It was released in the U.S. on Mar 19^th, 2021 with limited edition at the theaters and streaming.

Received 11 nominations at the Robert Awards, aka the Danish Oscars, and won Best Sound and Best Supporting Actress, this dramatic crime action tells the story of two police officers, Jens (Simon Sears) and Mike (Jacob Lohmann). While they’re on their routine patrol, they find themselves trapped in a maze of buildings when unrest spreads.

Besides the two police officer protagonists, the immigrant young lad Amos (Tarek Zayat) that tags along also plays a critical role in “Shorta.” He represents the fact that anyone who’s not white needs to be much more well-behaved to stay safe. Just like what the 2020 film “Critical Thinking” said, as a table of colored, even if they’re doing nothing, it’s still possible that the police would come.

Since the aim of “Shorta” isn’t to raise hatred, but to promote peace, consciousness is depicted a bunch of times on both the mob’s and the police’s sides. Except some extremists, neither side wants to hurt or even kill anyone from the other side. It’s just the matter of being belittled for a long time, and there’s a limit.

“Shorta” isn’t defending the improper and violent enforcement of the police, but it displays the reason behind from the police’s perspective. Due to fear and the heat of the battle, tragedies might happen because under urgent conditions, if the police don’t protect themselves, they might be the ones who die, but emotional control is indeed a very important lesson for the police to learn.

Denmark filmmakers have produced a large number of flicks about detectives or police systems, such as “The Guilty” and “The Purity of Vengeance” series. After Arab Spring, European countries experience the migrant crisis, especially Denmark, Germany and Sweden. “Shorta” combines the police theme and the conflicts between immigrants and original nationals, and creates a modern allegory.

Although “Shorta” discusses serious topics, Europe’s favorite sports, football, is included as a light topic in the motion picture to ease the pressure a little bit. Therefore, football aficionados will find some Easter eggs while watching “Shorta” and be able to laugh in the middle of tense scenes. As the movie digs deeply into discrimination in Denmark, it is indeed an amazing action to enjoy with.

Picture Credit: IMDb