Sufyan: The ending subverted my expectations for sure. The film omits what I thought was the game's strongest theme: That the protagonist has to weigh his conscience and empathy against the need to feed his own family. It would only have taken a minute for the film to show the protagonist get reprimanded and withheld pay for letting an insignificant clerical error slide.
Now that I think of it, the ending of the short film is morally repugnant, suggesting that the protagonist should have been less compassionate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFHHGETsxkE squid830: Well, denying or allowing entry based on the law is his job - it's not his job to make calls based on "compassion". If anything, calls made on "compassion" can be dangerous in such a position, especially given the political circumstances portrayed.
I don't see this as morally repugnant - quite the opposite, in fact.
I agree with you that they should have put some mention of him having to provide for his family somewhere - ideally worked in organically so it's implied without being directly spelled out (so not sure how they would have managed that).
The ending makes sense as a story, but to have this happen the one time the protagonist is shown to have a heart is a moral message. Perhaps it wasn't intentional, but the story structure makes it so. He is shown to stick to the rules even when he knows it will cause heartbreak, establishing where the protagonist is at the start of the story. The end is where he starts moving along a character arc but the film comes down with harsh consequences for doing so.
It's a very conservative message. Stay in line, do as you are told, it's best not to change what 'works'.
The protagonist is shown to look at a family photo which both establishes that they exist and in the end is used to motivate why he breaks routine and stops being a stickler for the rules. Perhaps the brief conversation with the soldier at the start of the day could establish that the protagonist is currently at risk of losing his job and even face imprisonment, to which he could respond by saying he won't make any more mistakes because his sickly son needs his father, something like that. Despite the tiring mantra 'show, don't tell' that people often get wrong, it is actually fine to establish setting and stakes through conversation alone much of the time.
