"Escape" (Maroutitch, 2025) - Review (10th Femme Filmmakers Festival))

Written by Lara Rosales

The most obvious and most used form of escapism humans have is listening to music. Putting your headphones on and shutting out the world after a long shift at work is one of the most human experiences there is, and Masha Maroutitch understood that perfectly when she portrayed it in her short film Escape.

There is a perfect transition between the outside world’s sounds and the music that happens when the main character puts on her headphones. While we hear the busy streets and the cars driving by, we immediately forget about it when the music starts playing. However, the change isn’t abrupt. It happens slowly as the woman is putting the headphones on and selecting a song. It helps bring the audience into her bubble, into her escape.

All sorts of transitions are handled with care and precision throughout the short. This is particularly true when we’re watching the woman dance around the park, and her scenes are mixed (or combined) with those of the woman in a dress. The transition is done smoothly, making us believe it is all one person at the same time and same place.

The music moves perfectly in sync with the woman, but so does the camera. The point of view we get makes us feel as if we were moving in perfect coordination with her as well. The POV shakes and trembles when she moves and runs around the park, giving us the feeling we’re also escaping reality.

Escape provides a beautiful example of the kind of director Maroutitch is while simultaneously helping the viewer escape their own reality by becoming one with the main character.

"The Femme Filmmakers Festival was conceived out of sheer human nature. Or at least, the kind of passion for a greater awareness of the female filmmakers that also reside on this planet. As Filmotomy has always striven to shine lights on the corners of the film world that simply don’t get the attention like the bigger guns do, setting up an exclusive event to celebrate these women and their movies seemed inevitable."

Learn more about Filmotomy and the Femme Filmmakers Festival here!

Photos: Filmotomy

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