HOLD UP | Omeleto

A homeless man wants a slice of pizza.
HOLD UP is used with permission from Alex Rollins Berg. Learn more at alexrollinsber....
Graham is a video editor and a New Yorker who must get uptown quickly. But when he misses his subway train going downtown, he's accosted by a man trying to sell him something: a watch, some lotion, anything. The man is desperate, hungry and agitated, and he presses Graham to help him. Feeling guilty and nervous about the man's intensity, Graham agrees to buy him some food, especially since the train is running so late.
The man relaxes when Graham buys him a pizza, and the pair talk, with the man sharing more of his story: born in Eritrea, drove a cab for some years in New York, sharing his name, which is Hashim. But when Hashim proves insistent on help, even after the pizza, Graham must decide how far his generosity can go.
Directed and written by Alex Rollins Berg, this compelling, thought-provoking short drama takes a sadly common encounter that many have had as its starting point: a homeless person approaching someone to sell or ask them something. But the superb writing and directing prolong what is often a cursory exchange into something more haunting and resonant, asking questions about the limits of empathy, the hollowness of "awareness" and just how we should help those experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity.
Shot with an urgent, agitated naturalism, the narrative is essentially a two-hander -- an emotional encounter between two characters that changes one or both of them in some way. But rather than a domestic or enclosed setting, it's placed against the larger canvas of New York at night, with all its sometimes sinister possibility and unsettling transience. This larger context is key to the film's resonance and meaning, raising the stakes for both characters: for Graham, it's the threat of the unknown, and for Hashim, it's another night spent riding and sleeping on the subways, with nowhere to go and no idea where his next meal will come.
The pair collide in a way that many city dwellers will recognize, and the dialogue between them is realistic about Hashim's desperate press to get something to eat and Graham's misgivings about helping him. The storytelling, too, is smart about planting some key seeds about Graham's state of mind -- he'd just been editing a video about recent events about race and aware of questions of unconscious bias. It also makes Hashim perceptive and persuasive enough to pick up on Graham's guilt in saying no, parlaying this encounter into an unexpected direction.
Actors Philip Ettinger and Renrick Palmer are both excellent, nimbly balancing the quicksilver currents of thoughts and emotions between Graham and Hashim, traversing initial mistrust, pained vulnerability, uneasy desperation and even tentative human connection. But when Hashim presses too hard -- and against the borders of Graham's boundaries and fears -- that connection can only go so far.
Powerful and intense, HOLD UP works so well because it enters into both Hashim and Graham's perspectives with empathy and intelligence, and viewers can relate to and sympathize with both. We understand why Hashim is so anguished; we also understand Graham's fears. Homelessness is a complex social issue that elicits complex responses, where many have the innate desire to help -- but will only go so far, especially when it disrupts our homes, lives or routines. If anything, the film shows the limit of the personal when it comes to such a large, complicated social issue.