My David: A Taut Thriller That Begs You to Not Like Its Leads

Kama Sood’s 11-minute My David, a thriller drama, mixes pity and suspicion into an uncanny hour of socialising between a young delivery man and an old woman alone at home. Sood does not attempt with any particular zealousness to veil that the man may be overstating the urgency—or legitimacy, for that matter—of paying “overdue shipment charges”. Other stories are underfoot.

Stories are indeed an appropriate way of describing the events as each character—Camille Mitchell as Rose and Krzysztof Bryjak as the delivery man—seems to compete with the other to tell them bold, emotional stories that pull together fact and fiction. Yet neither character, though fascinating, is easy to be sympathised with and the film wisely asks for none; they are more akin to two cons playing poker. 

The man has turned up at her door with a notice for a rather large sum. The light outside is such that it makes determining the time of day difficult—it could be very early in the morning or afternoon, there is little sun to break up the overcast green-blue sky either way. The ambiguity fits the sense of suspended time within an old person’s lonely home as well as it bleeds into everything else that takes place once Rose invites the man inside. 

Sitting at the kitchen table with a beautiful tea set between them, they make an unsettling approximation of domesticity and affection. While Bryjak is more obviously off, Mitchell is so impressively creepy that the closeups are just a hair too uncomfortable, much as her hair looks just a touch too smooth for an absent-minded old woman with no one to look after her. The overall effect of it all renders the brief surges of sincerity curious specimens. The background music when the man rifles through the drawers, for instance, is oddly melancholic despite the tension in it. 

The stories that My David tells hide others beneath them. These other ones may be familiar but their hiddenness makes them more appealing: treasures that call out to you and compel you to reach for them. But of course, there is no time. The police are here.