When Church has become a business and business is bad and faith is down, young elder, Malcolm (Thom Campbell) finds his standard conversion is complicated by a sexual relationship with a married woman who inexplicably breaks it off. Coupled with building pressure from fellow elders along with his Pastor (played by veteran American actor-turned Australian resident Nicholas Hammond), Malcolm struggles to juggle both his faith and his personal feelings.
“The Saviour” is a solidly made, low-key comedy/drama that highlights this bizarre atypical situation that is an original idea. Having said that, I felt the film was a little underdone and although it was cute I wasn’t sure what it was trying to say beyond its clever logline and possibly could have done more with this great concept. An enjoyable off-beat short film with brilliantly subdued performances along with excellent use of its basic few locations make for a pleasantly disturbing film.
This little Australian short film has taken the world by storm having won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Short at Slamdance, Best Screenplay at St. Kilda Film Festival and to top it off, received an Oscar nomination for Best Live Action Short. This is the second acclaimed short film from Peter Templeman and Stuart Parkyn (the first being Splintered) and it seems that these guys have the secret recipe for success and I look forward to seeing them tackle their first feature film sometime in the near future.
