Short Film Review - Divertimento (2023)

Following previous short films Vesper and Nox, French filmmaker Keyvan Sheikhalishahi returns to the genre with Divertimento. Having been screened at sixty four festivals and won over fifty awards, Divertimento has certainly made its mark amongst the festival circuit.

The film follows chess player Jonas Olsen, played by Kellan Lutz, who is invited to take part in a mysterious game. Haunted by past events, Olsen is spooked even more when he comes across one of the other players lying in the road on his way to the venue. But appearances can be deceptive, and he soon begins to realise that not only is he dealing with dubious characters who cannot be trusted, the game itself may be a smokescreen for more nefarious purposes.

Shot on location near Paris in an eighteenth century castle, Divertimento has an impressive production design and immediately draws the audience into the story with its visuals. However, Divertimento soon subverts expectations with a story that is not quite linear and leaves the audience guessing with twists and turns – nothing is quite as it seems in Divertimento.

Lutz takes centre stage here and is both engaging and intriguing as Olsen. His character is an enigma – both a chess playing genius and a man not unskilled in combat and Lutz plays both these sides well, convincing as either. The rest of the cast is also convincing and in particular Torrey DeVitto shines as Cathy, another character shrouded in mystery and whose intentions are at first unclear.

Whilst Divertimento is strong both in regard to its technical aspects and its cast, it does expose some weakness in regard to its story. The film is ambitious in wanting to tell a story with mind bending elements and making sure that the audience is kept on their toes, however at just under thirty minutes, there is only so much running time to allow the story to unfold. The result is that Divertimento does at times feel like a smaller part of a larger film and thus it tries to cram far too much in. As the film works to its conclusion, it becomes clear that a lot has still been unsaid and so an exposition dump is the only way to fit the remaining reveals in. Unfortunately, this does spoil some of what came before it and perhaps Divertimento would have ultimately worked better as a feature length film.