Safe Zone Review

“Hunger is the weapon. Hope is the bait” – Tag line

In a way, I’m continuing the theme I started with my review of Traces, which I published yesterday. Innocent civilians, helplessly drawn in to the ravages of war. Lives shattered and often snuffed out. But this film is set apart from any which cover similar themes that I have ever seen before.

I’ve said in previous reviews that the art of the short film is a completely different form of storytelling to the full length feature. It has a very limited time to set up a situation, introduce characters, get the audience to buy in to what they’re seeing, and most of all to get them to care. That’s a tall order. Try doing it in eight minutes!

This is precisely what writer/director Ahmad Alameldeen succeeds in doing in Safe Zone. Eight minutes. Animation. One single word of dialogue – and a film that leaves a deep and lasting impression. Alameldeen is uniquely qualified to deliver an uncompromisingly authentic film with this level of realism having previously spent more than a decade as a humanitarian aid professional working on the ground in war and disaster zones around the world. This is a film borne of actual experience. It might as well be a documentary.

Safe Zone takes place in a destroyed city in a war torn country. We’re not told where, but it doesn’t matter. There are civilians in the besieged city, hiding in the ruins, scurrying for whatever sustenance they can forage. In the basement of one building, a mother and daughter are sheltering, hiding from the hostile forces. An air drop of aid packages arrives, and one package lands nearby. Its contents are spilled on landing, but the two refugees are desperate with hunger, and the little girl breaks free to try and retrieve the parcel, but to do this she has to go out into the open – where a sniper is waiting.

Safe Zone, despite its gritty realism is beautifully executed animated feature with AI enhancement used to animate the original hand drawn sketches. The background renderings of the devastated city are haunting, with the creative choice of using monochrome rather than colour, adding to the sense of claustrophobia and menace that the characters have to live with.

Much has been said about the plight of civilians in situations similar to this one – and rightly so, but rarely is the message delivered so effectively. If such a thing can exist as an elegant yet devastating punch to the gut, then Safe Zone delivers it.

Unsurprisingly, Safe Zone has been successful on the festival circuit, winning the Best AI Short and Best Experimental Short at the Touchstone Independent Film Festival. It is now qualified for entry in the Animated Short category at the Academy Awards 2027.

Rob Rating = 10