2SSFA - 'Mickey' by Wesley Leon Aroozoo

Wesley Leon Aroozoo’s artistic direction and film conceptualization harbor a certain je ne sais quoi. On one hand it is really tempting to simply dismiss his filmography as bizarre; yet on the other there is certainly more than meets the eye than sheer absurdity.

The opening scene is impressionistic of Moon (2009), a British science fiction drama directed by Duncan Jones. The film, cleverly titled in a double entendre that pays homage to a popular Disney mouse, makes obvious mickey out of the human obsession with scientific experimentation and its will toward progress. In a running commentary that sometimes lapses into Hindi, multifold otherwise innocuous comparisons between rats and human beings are made that is destined to confuse more than clear the air.

“I see everything yet nothing,” Aroozoo cleverly mocks the baffled audience in one of the lines in his film. And with that, he hits home strongly the fallacy that scientists, and gradually human beings, tend to think they see the big picture despite being myopic most of the times. Like three blind mice.

This film was nominated for Best Art Direction (Wesley Leon Aroozoo, Michelle Cheong) and Best Experimental at the 2ns Singapore Short Film Awards.