Thanks for dropping in for another installment of our yearlong Review Stew! Hope you still have your library cards nearby cause we’re heading back to Kanpoy this week. Last week we had a short horror comedy and this week we have ourselves a dramatic short film in… No Ill Will (2018).
Title: No Ill Will (Ikki Illa Meint)
Director: Andrias Høgenni
Released: November 22, 2018 (Denmark)
Runtime: 21 minutes
Available to stream: on Kanopy in the United States
Elinborg (Mariann Hansen) is just trying to get some groceries when she finds herself facing most people’s nightmare, running into someone that you know at the grocery store.
While shopping, she notices her friend Marita (Sissal Drews Hjaltalin) in the produce section. Trying her best to avoid Marita seeing her, Elinborg goes so far as to lift her cart and carry it to a different section of the store. Despite her best efforts, Marita spots her and the dreaded confrontation must now take place.
But why is Elinborg so keen on avoiding any sort of confrontation with Marita?
After pleasantries are exchanged, Marita mentions her birthday party on Friday and that Elinborg is invited. The only problem is that Elinborg wasn’t aware of the invite. As we learn, she blocked Marita on Facebook awhile back.
The two engage in a tense conversation where Elinborg, as bluntly yet politely as possible, explains that Marita’s views that she expressed on Facebook were causing chaos for others. Marita had a habit of tagging people in every post, this left the people who were tagged to explain why they were tied to one of Marita’s controversial posts.
In order to set healthy boundaries and prioritize her own mental health, Elinborg just decided that blocking Marita was the best thing to do.
Will Elinborg’s decision prove to be the end of their friendship?
I thought I had a pretty good idea of where the story of No Ill Will (2018) was heading, well at least up until about the halfway point of the short film.
After their confrontation in the store, I assumed that we’d then get a glimpse at how their friendship overcame Marita feeling slighted for being blocked online. And honestly, I was all for Elinborg establishing healthy boundaries and looking out for her own mental health. Good for her.
But then Andrias Høgenni throws us one heck of a curveball.
We leave behind any comedic elements as the focus shifts to the realm of second-guessing and what-ifs.
While the writing itself was strong, the performances from Hansen and Hjaltalin elevate things to a whole other level. I went from being firmly on team Elinborg to then wanting to know more about Marita and feeling sympathetic towards her. By the time we reached the end, I managed to find myself in the middle, feeling sympathy towards both Elinborg and Marita.
After my viewing, I will have an eye on what both of the leads and Høgenni do going forward.
If you have the ability to watch No Ill Will (2018), I highly recommend you do so.
So, if by chance you have seen No Ill Will (2018), what did you think of it?
Leave a comment below or reach out to me over on Bluesky!
As always, you can follow me over on Letterboxd to see everything else that I’ve been watching lately.