Céline Roustan
To make his daughter happy, single father Per lets her invite two friends over for the night. Between society’s misconception of a father’s ability to parent alone, and Per’s cluelessness regarding the girls’ dynamic as a group, what started as a father doing his best and trying to please his daughter quickly takes a dark turn. In Ungar (Cubs), writer/director/producer Nanna Kristín Magnúsdóttir takes a chilling look at how an innocent situation can unexpectedly turn into a terrible tragedy.
“Let’s remember human kindness and not judge the book by its cover”
Looking to develop her own storytelling voice, in creating Cubs Magnúsdóttir explains that she oriented herself towards a narrative articulated around character development. Though the storyline shows the emotional journey of both the father and the two main pre-teen girls, it was Per’s arc that heavily touches on the main idea the filmmaker wanted to develop: “Mistrust is getting more striking in modern society and of course in many cases justly so. It’s good to take precautions but let’s remember human kindness and not judge the book by its cover”.
Played by the imposing Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Per’s character is really what drew me into the film. From the exposition, Magnúsdóttir establishes that he is a good guy, not perfect, but trying his best. When being interrogated by the mother of his daughter’s friend – regarding his ability to look after the young girls – he is pushed to a point where he accepts the humiliation of the questioning for her well being. A scene so awkward and uncomfortable that it immediately makes us empathize with him, Per captures both the challenges of a single parent and the fact that as a father he has to deal with the other parents’ disdain for his parenting abilities, solely based on his gender.
Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (L), a single father having to deal with some harsh preconceptions about his parenting,
The dynamic between the girls, in the setting of a dance recital, hit me very close to home. For the parents, it is hard to fathom how toxic their daughter’s friendships are at that age, but they really can have a dark side and Cubs captures every single facet, especially the ugly ones like rivalry, jealousy, resentment or revenge. Driven by an incredibly tight screenplay, Magnúsdóttir’s short uses a lot of subtle details to build her two young characters and make their friendship so volatile and so believable. One minute they are best friends, the next they are enemies. Throw in the influential effects of social media on their adolescent mind and how could Per be expected to keep track.
“I talked about experiences and feelings to get what I wanted”
The two young actresses are spectacular in understanding the layers of their characters and their friendship, especially at that age, being able to grasp it all is quite impressive. Magnúsdóttir, an actor herself, explains that she found different ways of working with the pair, depending on their methods. “One was into emotional thinking of the character so I talked about experiences and feelings to get what I wanted out of her” she reveals. “The other little actress practised professional gymnastics so she needed more clear and focused physical directions.”
Gripped by a captivating tension throughout, even though we get the feeling that something bad is bound to happen in Cubs, you never know when or what it will be. There are moments sprinkled within the film that will have you speculating as to what will occur, especially as the girls’ friendship slowly deteriorates and enters rather dark territory, with both girls becoming quite vicious. And just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse, Magnúsdóttir delivers a gut punch you never would have expected before delivering an epilogue that ends the film on such a realistic and disturbing note.
A hit on the festival circuit back in 2017, Cubs made its online debut as a Vimeo Staff Pick and we’re excited to finally be able to feature it on Short of the Week, as it’s a film that really stuck with us after first watching it a few years ago. This is Magnúsdóttir’s second short film as a director and she has since gone on to direct other shorts, a number of TV shows in Iceland and also has quite an extensive filmography as an actor.