Short but crucial: a review of Basir Mahmood’s ‘Sunsets, Everyday’ — Film Friday

In Basir Mahmood’s film, we are given a meta-cinematic approach to the subject of domestic violence.

After receiving a press pass from the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) for the February 2021 edition of their annual week-long event, I have written reviews for Bournbrook magazine of entries to the festival’s Ammodo Tiger Short competition, many of which are experimental in design, and play with a range of cinematic forms and ideas.

The ironic title Sunsets, Everyday refers, in part, to the continual, repetitive process of day-to-day life but also, as is insidiously made clear to us in the film, the day-to-day repeated reality of domestic violence. Like Flowers Blooming In Our Throats, another entry to the IFFR this year (review here), this film was made to drawn attention to this heavy yet highly relevant topic.

In Basir Mahmood’s film, we are given a meta-cinematic approach to the subject. We are presented with panning, extreme close-up shots of a camera crew, sweating in the perceptible heat of the studio, as they rig the lighting and other equipment. 

Basir Mahmood. Credit: IFFR

They are portrayed as onlookers to the scenes of domestic violence, which are, themselves, filmed in such a way as to be almost imperceptible. All the camera deliberately affords us is short glimpses of upper-body female flesh. Interestingly, the aforementioned crew is composed exclusively of men. So one can assume that this film is a critique of male-perpetrated violence. (Of course, this begs the question what is Mahmood’s opinion of female domestic violence towards men?). 

A crucial detail of the film is the repeated shots of a young male crew member sweeping the stage floor — an allegory surely indicating the repeated ‘cover-up’ of domestic violence and washing away of evidence by its perpetrators.

Credit: IFFR

The film’s shots feature mostly low-key lighting, which is entirely appropriate, given its dark subject matter. Given the film’s theme of everyday violence it is ironically posited that, for victims, it both is and isn’t a case of sunsets, everyday.

This review features in Bournbrook’s 16th print issue, available for purchase here. Alternatively, subscribe for just £2 per month to have every issue delivered for a discounted price.