Having played a number of the biggest animation festivals throughout 2012, award-winning Bulgarian short Rew Day brings its dark tone and pleasing visual style online for us all to bask in its macabre glory. Centred around the final day of a recently deceased man found dead at the docks (sounds fun huh?), Svilen Dimitrov’s film employs reverse chronological storytelling to reveal how its protagonist came to his bloody end.

Despite its eye-catching aesthetic, it’s the storytelling approach of Dimitrov’s short that’s really the most memorable aspect of his film. Although his opening titles, playing with a VHS-styled roll to them, and his synopsis, really prepare the viewer for what is about to come, his delivery still feels bold and unique. Opening with a shot of a man sitting quietly by a riverside, as boats traverse the waterways behind him, it’s almost a minute-and-a-half later that the realities of the situation are revealed and another minute before Rew Day’s hook really grabs hold. Now whilst we talk about the importance of pace and duration in the online viewing arena A LOT here on Short of the Week, Dimitrov’s film somewhat breaks the rules. Spending almost half of its near 7-minute run-time building up to the “twist” of its story, on paper Rew Day shouldn’t be a film well suited for internet viewing, but it does work – mainly due to its hugely rewarding pay-off. Having to wait almost 3-minutes for the action to kick-in, when it does it needs to be worth the wait and thankfully for Dimitrov, it truly is. Employing a technique often used in live-action filmmaking, but not so much in animation (please let me know in the comments if I’m wrong), his short feels fresh, inventive and easily digestible (despite its rather bleak subject matter).

Rew Day is a short that’s centred around a “gimmick” and these type of films live and die on whether these work and add something memorable to the piece, or fail and feel all style, but no content. Strip away the reverse storytelling utilised in Dimitrov’s film and narratively it could be labelled slight or one-dimensional, but why would you want to do that? Rew Day never pretends to be anything deeper or greater than it is – it might be centred around a weighty subject, but in reality it’s Dimitrov’s comedic touch makes it this film such an enjoyable watch.

Ps – If you want a hint as to why the man in Dimitrov’s tale is having such bad luck, keep an eye out for the calendar at the end (or is it the beginning?) of his story