Ivan Kander

Inside the Box is a short film of high-pedigree. Featuring some recognizable faces (Summer Glau from Firefly) and impressive visuals, it’s the type of film that is clearly well produced. But, polish isn’t everything—so many shorts nowadays look amazing, but aren’t often able to deliver the narrative punch to keep a viewer engaged. Fortunately, writer/director David Martin-Porras manages to bridge the gap, weaving an intriguing tale about trust and relationships that succeeds where so many similar dramatic “relationship shorts” fail.

To be up front, this is a film that is somewhat predicated on a twist, or perhaps more accurately—as the logline suggests—a secret. But, whereas I’m often quick to dismiss films that are reliant on some last minute turn, it feels organic here—a logical explanation to the events that have come before it, not some hamfisted attempt to “trick” the audience. There’s a major difference between creating an intriguing narrative and a manipulative one and thankfully, Inside the Box, is the former. The structure of the story is one of the film’s strongest attributes, keeping things both vague and compelling at the same time.

It’s, of course, worth nothing the performances. All three major roles are played by strong, established actors, giving the film a sense of emotional gravitas that extends beyond the plot beats. For what largely breaks down to a procedural mystery, Martin-Porras assuredly gives the film a human element the supports the resulting  plot machinations. Although I found the end advocacy message a bit out of place, I admire the film’s attempts to shed some light on a topical issue.

Conisering the high caliber nature of this short, there’s little surprise that Martin-Porras has feature ambitions. Inside the Box is essentially a prequel to  a feature iteration entitled A Texas Story, which focuses on the same general topic. Martin-Porras, along with his producers Elisa Lleras and Pau Brunet, are currently securing funding and are using this film as a proof of concept to bring some attention to the feature. Needless to say, we have a feeling you might be seeing a full-length version of this story hitting festivals in the next few years. Stay tuned!

And, if you’re interested in discovering more of the film’s creative process, check out this fantastic behind the scenes footage.