Nanitic (2022)

I found this short feature more intriguing for what it doesn't say than for what it does. There are three generations of a family living together. The youngest is content to mischieviously collect ants with her cousin and store them in a jar whilst her aunt and her mother share the child-minding responsibilities as well as caring for their ailing mother who is confined to an hospital bed in their living room. Resting under what looked like an uncomfortably bright light, she requires constant care and does not look long for the world. Her daughters do their best as they juggle their own responsibilities with more mundane activities like having a shower, and the children quietly observe whilst frequently raiding the candy jar. It's through the youngest's eyes that we watch much of this rotutine, and it's from her perspective that we also explore an house bedecked in memorabilia and photographs from days gone by but that don't really resonate with her. There is a certain synergy between the ants she keeps in her jar and the old lady in the bed. Both are trapped, neither are free to live their lives, and by the conclusion of this brief and inconclusive exposure into their day, I wondered whether it was any less cruel to drip feed the granny water from a spoon than it was to detain the ants in the jar. Director Carol Nguyen addresses issues of humanity in an interestingly oblique fashion and it's gentle pacing and comfortably domestic setting provide us with a little food for thought.