A beautiful, heartwarming story of two people whose past struggles prevented their love in their youth, finding their way back to each other in the end. From emotional voiceovers that evoke shared experience and connection, to characters whose personality is so clearly depicted they seem to be jumping out of the screen – Pierre West is a short film that balances heartbreak, hope and love as perfectly tripodal as it could.
Pierre Emanuel West, who is played endearingly by Tomas Hartwig, is a lonely man being haunted by the emotional trauma inflicted upon him by his father. Throughout the film, he struggles to find meaning in life nor a reason to stay. Eva Cornelia Bro, portrayed delicately, yet full of strength by Alexandra Lindqvist, is a young woman with unpleasant memories of her own who is deeply dissatisfied with her life, especially her work and lack of personal connections.
One day, completely by fate, Pierre calls tech support for help with his broken television. Eva picks up the phone and what starts as a business as usual call turns into one of the most meaningful conversations either of them has had in a long time– even though they don’t discuss much. Pierre, blinded by insecurity, feels the need to lie about his life. He tells Eva he tests race cars and lies about activities he’s going to take part in. While it momentarily bred confidence in him, when Eva gives him her personal number to call whenever he pleases, Pierre is too paralyzed by the echoes of demeaning words to ever use it.
The creators of the film, Henrik Larsson and Jakob Arevärn, play perfectly with the audience’s heartstrings through Pierre and Eva’s individual isolated sadness, never full of true fulfillment. Seventeen years later, Pierre still lives alone, going through the motions of his life. His only roommate is his dear dog, Eva, who he has had for fifteen years.
Meanwhile, Eva tries to break herself from her trapped life on the 9 to 5 schedule so that she may live freely. Her only companion is that of her goldfish. While loneliness is one of the saddest and more boring human experiences, Larsson and Arevärn keep the viewer hooked through nostalgic aesthetics and characters so brilliantly written that you can’t help but want to see everything work out for them.
Through closeups of their eyes, the subdued sensitivity of Pierre’s composure and the frustration of Eva that is palpable through the screen, a connection is articulately created with the audience. This is truly a testament to fantastic writing. Because Pierre is written alone most of his time on screen, the clear image of his uneventful social life is created. He has limited interactions, only one friend, Panagiotis– played by Panagiotis Vasiliou, who gives him advice on how to feel happy once again. Through this advice, Pierre’s need to lie to make those around him believe he is worthy is clearly illustrated once again– lying to Panagiotis that he bought a grand piano when he only has a keyboard. Nonetheless, he proceeds with music as a healing method. He returns to work, driving a taxi. He picks up a woman who is unknowingly Eva. After their conversations, the connection is clearly still magnetically pulling them towards each other, Eva mentioning her fish was named after an actor that Pierre had mentioned to her once. Though he is delighted by this fact, he is still clueless as to who she is. Just when it seems they won’t ever find out, Eva exits the car, only to hear Pierre answer the phone, saying his name. She turns to him, looking at the man that she had lost all those years ago and hope fills the atmosphere of the shot.
Pierre West is a positively uplifting and inspiring film that combines grief and suffering with hope and love, and is definitely worth all twenty-eight minutes and fifty-six seconds of watch time.
Pierre West will be screening at the Fall 2025 New Jersey Film Festival on Sunday, September 21. The film will be Online for 24 Hours beginning at Midnight on this show date. Tickets are available for purchase here.
The 44th Bi-Annual New Jersey Film Festival will be taking place between September 5-October 10, 2025. The Festival will be a hybrid as we will be presenting it online as well as doing select in-person screenings at Rutgers University. All the films will be available virtually via Video on Demand for 24 hours on their show date. VoD start times are at 12 Midnight Eastern USA. Each General Admission Ticket or Festival Pass purchased is good for both the virtual and the in-person screenings. Plus, we are very proud to announce that acclaimed band Cold Weather Company will be doing an audio-visual concert on Friday, October 10 at 7PM. Lastly, we will be offering three FREE Filmmaking Workshops! The in-person screenings and the Cold Weather Company concert will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ beginning at 1PM, 5PM or 7PM on their show date. General Admission Ticket=$15 Per Program; Festival All Access Pass=$120; In-Person Only Student Ticket=$10 Per Program. The Filmmaking Workshops are FREE and open to the public but have limited seating and require advance registration. To register email us at [email protected]
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