“Out of the Box (Fora da Caixa)” (2025)

Directed by Hsu Chien

San Diego Short Film Festival

Drama

15:10 TRT

 

Ana (Dani Fritzen), a recent divorcee, unpacks her boxes and her feelings in her new apartment, and engages in a few trips down memory lane with the mental image of her ex, Edu (Mario Neto).

Despite the title, “Out of the Box” uses remarkably conventional metaphors to probe Ana’s psyche – “moving” for “moving on,” “broken crystal” for “broken relationship” and “boxes” for “being boxed in,” just to name the major ones. It would have all felt too simple to carry the weight of the material if it weren’t for Fritzen’s earnest performance and Hsu’s more than ample direction. Scenes move along at a good pace and the shots are framed simply but ably, with little flourish (outside of two conversations Ana has with Edu). The tone of the film lightens as it moves along and the color grading does as well.

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Audio is a mixed bag. The music is fine, and fits the mood of the film well – but its absence at times seems alternatively abrupt or arbitrary. The audio quality on the review web site was also poor at times, with both music and dialog vacillating, scene to scene, from sounding fine to sounding distorted in a way that didn’t feel intentional.

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I was struck by the contrast to “Bergamot,” a work of Hsu’s from 2023. That film was completely unconventional in all the ways that “Out of the Box” exists almost exclusively within a traditional box. But that range itself is interesting, and Hsu remains a talent worthy of attention.