Fantasia 2024: SINCOPAT, Short Film Short Review

During the opening credits of short film, Sincopat, many festival laurels are initially displayed onscreen. Then, following a loud ‘bang’ on the soundtrack, several dozen more appear. This is a first for me, but it is in sync with the aural focus of the film. I do not recall ever seeing so many festival laurels in a single place, and never introduced with sound design. I may be late to the party of this incredible little film, but I am happy to be at the party. 

 

In the near future, a Catalunyan tech company has invented a device that allows music to be sent directly into your brain via implant. This eliminates the need for earbuds (or the far better, wired headphones) and puts the user truly in control of their sonic environment.

We follow one of the company's marketing executives, Ona, who has access to the device before its impending launch. While grabbing a cocktail at a bar, she flexes to the bartender by showing ‘no earbuds,’ as she rocks out to her own private beats. Flashback to her cocky yet casual interview with a tech reviewer, and her morning hangover after she tied one on, and you can sense that this product launch, as they say, is a disruptor. But the law of unintended consequences (or unintended use cases) applies, and things start to go horribly, painfully, wrong with the device - in ways that are both surprising and inevitable.



Structured into chapters named after the Kübler-Ross five stages of grief - denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance - but also elliptical in its editing, Sincopat is juggling a lot of things in its 13 minute runtime, but it is all tied together with some exceptional sound design, that underscores the dangers to society and personal health of early adoption, be it the smartphone, Facebook, TikTok, Ring doorbell cameras, or Ozempic. This is particularly true when the beta-testing stage is so short, and the marketing budget is so large. 

 

Sincopat haș won best short film, best sound design, or every and any other award festivals see fit to dole out these days. And for good reason. It is a supremely executed lesson in “hear-don’t-tell.”  I do not recall a short film this complete in form and function since Dennis Villeneuve’s Next Floor.  I cannot imagine a universe where director Pol Diggler and his sound designers, Albert Fariñas & Ferran Pujol, do not have big things on the horizon.