THE LONG GOODBYE -
ANEIL KARIA (2020)

Directed by Aneil Karia, and written by Karia and its star, Riz Ahmed, The Long Goodbye won the 2022 Oscar for Best Short Film (before Will Smith hit Chris Rock). Eventually told in the form of a poem, it tells the story of an ordinary day in a British Asian family until a far right group comes for them. It displays fine filmmaking - and Ahmed is always great - but its conceit does grate a little with me: that a Brownshirt-like movement is cleansing ethnic families (as the Nazis once did) and these families are taking no precautions, nor receiving any help from the public. I realise it is trying to make a point (and fire a warning), and of course there is racism in Britain, but I believe the Kindertransport - when British families took in 10,000 mainly Jewish children escaping the Nazis - is more representative of how the British public reacts to ethnic cleansing. Feel free to let me know if I'm missing the point with a comment below.