This is a short film that can be seen on a DVD of award-winning shorts from around the world from the Film Movement Series. For several years now, Film Movement has been bringing out a yearly compilation of shorts in place of their usual monthly feature film release. This is from the January, 2008 collection.

THE GREAT ZAMBINI might just be the best film of the DVD collection, as the writer and director had an excellent and deft touch. Throughout this entire film, there was no dialog--it was all done in very muted action from the actors. And yet, despite this, the message was clearly conveyed and was often rather poignant and touching.

The film begins with a dwarf hanging up clothes to dry. Sadly, local boys come and taunt him--you assume just because he's different. Later, when you see the man at school waiting to pick up his son, the little boy is the last to leave the building and you assume it's because he's ashamed of his tiny father. How this man is able to reclaim his son's admiration is amazing and totally surreal, but also quite charming.

As I said, the story has no dialog and so much of it is implied, but I liked that the viewer is able to understand what is happening as well as the characters' inner struggles due to the way the short film was executed. A nice and charming film.