Pauline Mabille is one director that knows how to tell a story. In ‘ Right Here or Over There’ the whole narrative construction is so nicely done, you won’t know what hit you. Lily, a young girl, returns home after a long period of time. Her family has mixed feelings about this and at first sight it is very hard to understand why; but, as the story goes by, following a path of clues that are sometimes obvious, other times implied, the viewer will discover a hidden truth that changes the whole course of the action.

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The dramatic effect of this short is extremely powerful. The scenes where the girl seeks for comfort around her parents are numerous, and not once their attitude reveal that something is not entirely right. One of our favorite scenes is the pool one, where Lily throws the teddy-bear into the pool. Seconds later, her mother comes and joins her, and the angst that flows in the air is extraordinary pictured. The dialogue in the same scene is sharp as a knife, cutting the emotions in small pieces.

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The cinematography of this short is really good. Even though ‘Right Here or Over There’ is the first movie of Pauline Mabille, she did an amazing job. The shots are perfectly timed and the country house setting is brilliantly expressive, showing the exact amount of every element Mabille wanted to foreground. Also, the cast of this short was perfectly chosen, highlighting the issues a family encounters; based on the problems they have and how they resolve them, we would compare it with the White family from the hit series ‘Breaking Bad’. The same hidden problem that comes into attention as time goes by, and one way or another, it will affect the whole family in different ways.

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We won’t go into further details, but we will say this – with movies like ‘Right Here or Over There’, contemporary French cinematography proves once again that is one of the most powerful and profound in today's world.

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Written by Vlad A. G