The Saviour

2005, Australia, directed by Peter Templeman

Like many a narrative short , The Saviour has a structure that revolves around a last-minute joke that ties the action up; this film deserves its fun with a carefully plotted set-up. It's essentially a deadpan variation on the theme of revenge as a dish best served cold, in an unusual milieu: those earnest young men who go door to door to promote the way to truth and salvation (the lead character (played by Thom Campbell) is not quite sure of his calling and it's not hard to sympathize with this rather lovable loser). Writer-director Templeman has fun with the relationship between Malcolm and his American pastor (if you ever wondered what happened to Friedrich Von Trapp from The Sound of Music, actor Nicholas Hammond is alive and well in Australia), while he's already a skilled filmmaker, making clever use of editing to compress time and play with the viewer's expectations.