User Reviews

...about loneliness, exterior action and consequences. Or only a documentary about camels , tracking system, result of an intervention perturbing the life of object of study in fundamental manner. A film who you feel . Because is well crafted. And its powerfull message remains , for long time, in memory as a sort of warning.

I watched Judas Collar as part of a block of films called Stranger Than Fiction (films based on fact) at the Satisfied Eye International Film Festival and it's that very non-fiction element that makes this story so remarkable. In reading the cast list (the names of the camels, from Sonic to Claudia) you could be forgiven for thinking this would be a light-hearted and frivolous film, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Expertly directed and with lavish cinematography, this incredible short manages to weave its moving narrative without words and with a caravan of camels as (almost) its solitary cast. Capturing the true scale and tragedy of this story, while conveying themes of loyalty, loneliness, bravery and sacrifice it's a perfectly realised film that leaves a mark on the audience long after they've left the cinema.

Film's ability to anthropomorphize is nothing new, but yet this short film manages to feel fresh and surprise while doing just that. Taking a real situation, the film inserts feelings into a camel who has been tagged with a tracking collar so that it will lead exterminators to packs of other camels. Judas Collar is dialogue free but yet it uses music, editing, and cinematography to excellent effect in so much as it tells an emotional story on a way that works. If you take any specific element out of it, it probably doesn't work at all in the way it does as a whole, but all together it produces an effective story out of very little.

Technically it must have been a huge undertaking to shoot; it is in the Australian outback, and involves animals and helicopters - not sure the detail but it sounds hard! The score does a lot of the heavy lifting back in post, but the shot selection and story-boarding of the action is the key thing that gives us expressions and feelings for the music to elevate. An unusual short film for sure, but a surprisingly good one.