A La Carte (On The Menu), showing in the 28th Raindance Film Festival 2020 in London, sends through it a very stark reminder of the past through which the people of Vietnam went during the 1940s. Vietnam during and after World War 2 came under French rule, and was turned into a colony. The French colonial rule was one of the most barbaric ones that the Vietnamese went through as their were capital punishments being practiced against those who were demanding independence from France.

Director and writer Jay Do in his short film shows just a glimpse of what the innocent people of Vietnam went through. The characters shown are helpless and silently screaming out for help but can find no rescue. The scene is dark, dull and muddy. An abattoir of humans is spread upon a small peace of earth in all its glory. The scene almost shows a simile to the Roman coloseum where humans innocent or convicted were thrown in a bloody show for the citizens to watch and cheer at. But here, only silence watches them, and the painful cries of the fellow convicted cheer them.

Briliantly thought out and scripted and excellently executed, the short film exposes us viewers to a part of history that is seldom known and talked about. It speaks volumes without the characters muttering a single word. The performances are near to life and the cinematography plays a vital role in telling the story.

The film is showing in the International Shorts strand of the Raindance film festival.