An incident at the beach forces a woman to face her fears in this short and thought-provoking film by James Dubbeldam entitled Your Worst Enemy.
Coming in at just over six minutes in length, Your Worst Enemy doesn’t waste any time in telling its story. There is no filler, no needless scenes, it grabs a hold of you and takes you on a compact and interesting journey. We do love short films that come at you from different and imaginative ways, and this short film does exactly that.
A woman named Mia (Leilani Gobaleza) is standing on the beach in her swimming costume, facing the sea. Just from her mannerisms, we can see that she is scared. She turns around, only to find her belongings are being stolen by a woman in a pink hoodie. After giving chase, she finally gives up, only to see the thief again, further along the road, dumping the bag off a bridge onto the sandy path below. After retrieving her things, minus her purse, but including her medication and a now broken phone, the upset Mia walks away only to spot a vendor (Nathalie Soto Cuzin) selling sandals and hoodies. Shivering in her swimming costume, and with no money, Mia removes her necklace and offers an exchange to the vendor – her necklace for a pink hoodie.
Your Worst Enemy plays around with the idea of parallel dimensions and the idea that you should always face your fears, no matter how scared you are. Dubbeldam uses many techniques in the edit to make his short stand out, including side-by-side shots showing both parallel versions of Mia throughout, and it makes for a very interesting watch.
There is no dialogue in Your Worst Enemy. None at all. But when the storytelling is as good as it is here, there are no words necessary. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that the short works better without any talking. We, as the viewers, know what is happening thanks to the visual cues on offer, and in this instance, dialogue may have just gotten in the way.
As stated above, Your Worst Enemy is a quick six minutes filled with imagination, dilemma, and thought-provoking imagery. It’s certainly worthy of your time, and respect.
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