Amsterdam Alert (NL-Alert), played at this year’s Grimmfest, and it’s a hard-hitting, claustrophobic drama/real-life horror sitting perfectly at the 37-minute mark runtime. Directed by Loïs Dols de Jong, this short film tells the story of a young mother in Amsterdam who’s trying to get home to her baby, but during this time everyone receives an emergency alert on their phone – a nuclear missile is heading towards the city and everyone has 45 minutes to evacuate.
The story works well, and it’s one that everyone can relate to – a fear we all have inside ourselves, whether it’s a constant worry or something locked deep inside us. Throughout the short film you find yourself questioning the decisions made by the mother (Liza Macedo dos Santos), the people she meets along the way, and most startlingly, the ones made by those who live in her apartment building who try to help her to get back into her flat. They promise they’ll keep an eye on the baby while the mother leaves to pick up spare keys, but after receiving the alert they decide to leave the child and try to make their own way to safety. It’s a decision that forces the audience to ask themselves some uncomfortable questions – Would I do the same? Would I try anything more to save the baby? Is it truly every person for themselves?
Amsterdam Alert constantly uses close-up shots to add to the already overwhelming feeling of claustrophobia and chaos so, understandably, there’s no time for the viewer to take a breath as we watch time tick away – along with any hope for any of the characters we meet along the mother’s journey home slowly diminishing. We feel this claustrophobia in abundance during the final scenes of the film as hundreds of people flock for shelter in the subway, hoping to get protection before the bomb hits. Alongside the mother’s story we follow two workers who have been given the gut-wrenching task of picking 200 to 300 people to seek shelter in a bunker, but it’s not fully equipped and operational. If even one person over the limit enters the shelter, the oxygen would run out and everyone inside would die. As the public gets a hold of this news, the panic and chaos are amplified (people were surprisingly calm up until this point), and the audience is left to question their own morals once again. Would I lie to get into the shelter? Would I sacrifice myself for someone I don’t know?
The runtime is perfect as we’re given time to get to know the characters so we can root for them, but any longer and it would have felt like we have overstayed our welcome. Ultimately Amsterdam Alert plays well with real human emotions and morals as we’re there with the characters, panicked and worried about the plight of everyone we see on screen. We’re used to watching apocalyptic movies with big budgets and farfetched storylines that give the viewer hope, but this feels like an honest and bleak telling of what would really happen if we were given 45 minutes to live.
Amsterdam Alert (AKA NL Alert) had its International Debut at Grimmfest 2024
Alice’s Archive – Amsterdam Alert (2024)
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