“Welcome to Luxembourg Airport,” the airport’s information system reads. Time check: 12:25 midnight. In the now-empty arrival area, a single red suitcase remains unclaimed on the conveyor belt. Its owner, a teenage girl from Iran, seems to be scared of even claiming the bag. Audiences are left to wonder, “What’s in the bag?”
Or more importantly: “Why doesn’t she just meet her family waiting for her for sure at the concourse?”
Director Cyrus Neshvad’s “The Red Suitcase” (French: La Valise Rouge) doesn’t explain right away. Instead, it allows the viewers to see events unfold the same time the girl sees them. Once the screen fades to black, the audience is left to contemplate freedom as a commodity most tend to take for granted—and the steep price others pay just to enjoy even a sliver of it.
Airport security personnel check the contents of the titular red suitcase. (Photo courtesy of Santa Barbara International Film Festival).
A More Frightening, Looming Presence Awaiting Behind the Automatic Doors
After calling her father and telling him she’s still on the plane when in fact she’s nervously killing time at the lounge, the girl (credited as Ariane) eventually picks up her red suitcase. The airport security personnel approach her as she looks frightened and uncomfortable, as if hiding something in her suitcase. When the airport staff see the contents of the red suitcase, they let her go. However, she deliberately takes her time, as if not wanting to see what awaits her past the automatic doors.
Without giving away the story, Neshvad gives the audience a glimpse of who’s on the other side: a man by his lonesome, visibly agitated by all the waiting he has to endure. Is he family? Does Ariane even want to see him? If not, how can she evade him? Answers to these questions become clearer as the short film progresses, giving viewers not only heartbreaking insights but also free panic attacks along the way.
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How ‘The Red Suitcase’ Challenges a Tradition Centered on Male Domination
‘The Red Suitcase’ runs at a confident pace, infusing enough suspense to Ariane’s journey and bringing a somewhat hopeful conclusion to an otherwise open-ended story. More importantly, however, the film challenges a tradition that has long focused on male domination. And using his star’s penetrating gaze, Neshvad benefits a great deal from Nawelle Ewad’s performance. Just with her eyes, we see a teenage life already beset by paternal expectations, societal demands, and a potential death of her passion due to others’ control.
As Ariane peeks repeatedly to look at who awaits her at the concourse, we feel her fear so much that we can taste it. This is, after all, a 16-year-old girl in a foreign country; not knowing anyone and having enough cash that might not even get her through the succeeding days. The actions she takes throughout the film have dire consequences of their own, all of which we can see in her eyes. And this comes to the fore near the end of the film, when she realizes that she might lose her red suitcase forever.
But with those same expressive eyes, we understand that if losing her red suitcase means keeping her freedom intact, then it’s a trade she’d gladly make all over again.
Hiding a few suitcases away: A scene from the short film ‘The Red Suitcase’. (Photo courtesy of Santa Barbara International Film Festival).
A Timely Short Film on the Heels of Civil Unrest
With this year’s Academy Awards just a little over a month from now, two short films that received nominations for Best Live Action Short shed light on the plight of women in today’s still-patriarchal society: ‘Night Ride’ and ‘The Red Suitcase’. And while the former shows the sexism and prejudices revolving around gender identity, the latter serves as a microcosm of a tradition that renders women largely voiceless and powerless.
In the case of ‘The Red Suitcase’, this is a timely short film, especially on the heels of the 2022 Iran protests. A Luxembourg director of Iranian origin, Neshvad himself agrees, saying in a statement that the acclaim of his short film gives him a sense of pride to “bring support to the Iranians fighting right now in the streets of Tehran for their freedom.”
A very pointed examination of a sensitive aspect of a people’s culture and tradition that cleverly shows the ramifications of one’s desire to regain freedom and control, ‘The Red Suitcase’ eschews the pitfalls of politicization and instead focuses on riveting storytelling.
And for a film only 17 minutes long, it manages to pack in enough anxiety and empathy to last a feature-length movie.
‘The Red Suitcase’ will screen at this year’s Santa Barbara International Film Festival. It will compete in the 95th Academy Awards for the Best Short Film (Live Action) category.
