Wrong Formula

Directed by Rajab Mahmood

2024

Brothers Productions Films

A new 1-minute micro short titled Wrong Formula comes courtesy of filmmaker Rajab Mahmood and we take a look at this project which was made recently for the BFI's 60 second vertical film competition.

A blast of wind and a newspaper headline stating that the ‘World Is Burning’ opens the short before we quickly move to focus in on our lead character Varun (Aqil Ghani), a scientist who may have made an awful mistake.

The man breathes deeply, seemingly concerned with an urgent event, and states his calculations should have prevented an emergency, not caused it.

With his prediction of an invasion due in 500 year’s time, his palpable anxiety is obvious and he’s certainly alarmed at his possible inaccuracy.

Rushing outside, a bright light shines upon Varun as he looks to the sky before we witness him being lifted off the ground into a future unknown.

Finally, a short coda states we should live for the present, summing up the film’s themes of procrastination and (blundering) predictions.

A quick blast if sci-fi apocalyptic fun, it was also satisfying to see a few slices of comedy litter the film as, perhaps with only moments to survive, Varun seems to make himself a hot drink during this state of emergency. A suitably calming act, no doubt.

On a technical level, 60-seconds is an extremely short time to get a message across but with some quick editing and clever construction, director Mahmood does well with this limitation.

The short was entirely shot in Birmingham and the film tries, and mostly succeeds, in getting a lot of ideas across in a brief runtime. I’ve mentioned before that the short film format itself means you have no time to dawdle in your storytelling and messaging.

Spry editing, brief shots and smart mise-en-scène is required to establish the premise and move things on swiftly. Think more TV adverts than drawn-out Kubrick, folks.

And Wrong Formula certainly heeds this. With a rapid pace and an easily understandable concept, the micro-short gets straight to the point in setting up its premise, develops it quickly and even leaves the audience wanting more. A fine example of the format indeed.

★★★½

3.5/5

Michael Sales