A young couple must pick up the pieces when fault lines in their home and relationship are exposed in the aftermath of an earthquake.The fault lines that give rise to the earthquake are a metaphor for fractures in this young couple's relationship: fair enough. But that's just on the surface of things. One step below has to do with his smoking. It is probably no directorial accident that the earthquake occurs, the moment that he breaks a cigarette in half. His struggle to abstain from smoking, and more importantly the physical and psychological meaning of cigarettes for him, are more than she apparently understands or tolerates. (Her casually tossing that vase from his aunt is another example of how little she is plugged into his interior world.) That struggle shakes him up more than a little.
What was most striking about this short film is that he totally ignores her calling for him during the earthquake. Afterwards he lies about where he was and what he was doing, as he cannot seem to articulate what his distemper may be about. We don't know for sure, but it clearly has to do in part, or even in large measure, with her. All of which make the fault lines metaphor even more powerful, I believe: They lie well below the surface of the earth, just as fractures run well below the daily lives for the two of them. She is evidently not aware of them, and he may not be so conscious of it, either. Still the earthquake began to surface his distemper in relation to her, and he is clearly unsure and-or unwilling to raise it with her. Regardless, their relationship is in trouble, the earthquake being merely a precursor to a more volatile, emotional shake up for both of them.
An altogether brilliant, poignant film.
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