Shorta review: Gripping Danish thriller comments on unchecked police power

Shorta, a Danish thriller from first time filmmakers Frederik Louis Hviid and Anders Ølholm, centres around two cops in the midst of a riot after a Black Muslim teen dies as a result of their colleagues’ brutality.

A still from Shorta | Twitter

In India, the cop is the harbinger of justice and peace, the straight-laced saviour and guardian, who ironically often ignores due process. If you mention cop dramas, not one film that is even remotely critical of the law enforcement comes to mind, at least not in Hindi-language cinema. The larger narrative is so heavily peppered with reverence for these figures that there seems no scope for a story that can give a different view of the police machinery. 

Shorta, a Danish thriller from first time filmmakers Frederik Louis Hviid and Anders Ølholm, centres around two cops in the midst of a riot after a Black Muslim teen dies as a result of their colleagues’ brutality.

The film opens with the teenager named Talib Ben Hassi lying face down as a white officer presses his knee into his back. “I can’t breathe,” he says weakly. This imagery is painfully reminiscent of the incident that took George Floyd’s life, sparking protests across the US and the world. Talib is hospitalised for his injuries and never appears in the film again, except for when he’s mentioned in the TV news reports and at the police department where the top is only looking to lighten the tension against his team.

We are then introduced to the two cops who lead the narrative — an openly racist one Mike (Jacob Hauberg Lohmann) and his steadier counterpart Jens (Simon Sears). Their leader sends them out to patrol the streets but not before warning them to stay off Svalegården, the immigrant suburb that had been simmering with tension ever since the incident involving Talib. 

As they cruise around town, Mike instantly spews his bigoted views without pausing to think twice about what he’s really saying. But then that’s really how racism works, doesn’t it; you so deeply believe your flawed point of views that there’s no room for reevaluation. But Jens not once engages with Mike, not even to shut him up. I guess it was a way for the makers to convey that passivity is as good as being a bigot, a pattern that continues in the rest of the story and worsens things for both cops.

As they pass by Svalegården, Mike decides to pick on Amos (Tarek Zayat) at random. It’s one of the many uncomfortable moments present throughout the narrative. Nothing seems to make Mike stop, his humiliation tactics go a level up especially after Amos resists. They eventually arrest him, and that’s when the news of Talib’s death breaks on the radio, inciting a riot within the neighbourhood and the rest of the city.

There’s a lot of white-knuckle action that Shorta has to offer as the two cops try to navigate their way out of the neighbourhood, all the while holding Amos hostage. On their tails is an angry mob of rioters, rightfully angry If I may say so. While it’s hard to justify violence in any form, there comes a point where the marginalised have no option but to retaliate, and retaliate hard. Their rage is directed towards authority figures, and a system that has repeatedly singled them out and pushed them into a corner for their identity.

The two cops being stuck in the suburban maze may sound like a stretch, their colleagues unable to extract them from there does so too. The story is flecked with a series of coincidences for an added dramatic effect that just make it slightly easy to guess what will happen next. The characters, especially the two cops, may seem different on the surface, at least initially, but are ultimately cut from the same cloth. The narrative takes no sides — the makers persistently remind the viewer of the power imbalance that has been fostered by the system they live in. 

It's an effective and effective thriller, one that finds a balance between action without letting it get in the way of its message. 

Shorta is available on BMS Stream.

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