Hvorfor flygte fra det du ved du ikke kan flygte fra? (Lars von Trier, 1970, Denmark)

  Hvorfor flygte fra det du ved du ikke kan flygte fra? - translated as "Why to run from what you know you can't run from" - is another early short from director Lars von Trier, this time made when the director was 14. The silent film opens with a car passing along a road, followed by the title card. We see the car again, this time with a purple filter. The use of filters is something that characterized von Trier's work even much later on in his career. The action of the story begins with a boy attempting to help what appears to be another boy who has fallen on a bike. The boy seems to be running for help.

The boy runs through a wooded area, and the use of filters continues, rendering the scenery in purple and other tones. The boy falls, and then we return to the original figure fallen on the bike, who is now surrounded by an occultic-type circle of lit candles. The figure's head is bandaged. The figure gets up from the circle and walks away from the scene of the accident. Meanwhile, the boy is still running frantically, presumably to get some help. 

The camera then follows what appears to be a trail of blood. The boy is now swimming in a stream. The boy washes up on shore, meanwhile, we see a head-on shot of the bandaged figure. The boy - still running - collapses once again. He is then crawling through a field of grass, where he encounters the bandaged figure once again. The film concludes. This eerie piece is suggestive of later works by von Trier, and already at age 14, the director had manifested a certain aesthetic sensibility - albeit in a very primitive form. Worth seeking out for van Trier completists. 

5/10