It took some time for me to understand and appreciate the works of Alice Rohrwacher, who has been one of the most interesting filmmakers of our time since she made a feature film debut with “Heavenly Body” (2011). While I admired “Happy as Lazzaro” (2018) as much as many others, I actually struggled a bit to discern what and how it is about, but then I got more accustomed to her own distinctive style and touches after watching “La chimera” (2023) and “The Wonders” (2014) later, and I also enjoyed a lot her Oscar-nominated short film “Le pupille” (2022), which is incidentally available on Disney+ right now.

In case of her latest short film “An Urban Allegory”, Rohrwacher worked along with JR, an acclaimed French artist who previously made an Oscar-nominated documentary film “Faces Places” (2017) along with Agnès Varda. Inspired by “Allegory of the Cave” by Plato, the film explores the importance of art in our urban life via its seemingly simple story, and the result is another fascinating work to be added to Rohrwacher’s advancing career.

At first, we meet a little young boy named Jay (Naïm El Kaldaoui) and his dancer mother. Although he is rather ill, there is not anyone else to take care of him besides his mother right now, so she has no choice but to go to her latest audition along with her son. Alas, she only ends up arriving a little too late at a building where the audition is going to be held, and now she must persuade the supervisor of the audition to let her participate in the audition while her son is waiting for her alone in the corner.

While his mother is occupied with the audition, Jay happens to encounter a guy who is clearly the director to preside over the audition along with his staff. Because this dude is played by none other than Leo Carax (He also serves as one of the producers of the film, by the way), our level of interest is instantly increased, and Carax has some little fun with his brief but crucial part – especially when his character whispers something to Jay.

The film does not specify much what exactly Carax’s character says to Jay, but we come to have a pretty good idea as Jay later wanders around streets and alleys and then begins sort of a steam-of-consciousness monologue clearly influenced by the aforementioned work of Plato. As he looks more around people and places, we become more aware of how we often let ourselves get entrapped in our urban daily life in one way or another, and I assure you that you will not feel like checking up your smartphone at all while watching this small satiric moment.

However, the film also finds some hope and optimism as our little hero comes to discover how things around him and others can really look and feel quite different, and that is where JR’s own distinctive artistic style makes a leap from what has been established so well by Rohrwacher. I will not go into details here for not spoiling any of your entertainment, but I can tell you instead that you will be quite delighted if you were entertained a lot by those memorable pieces of installation art by JR in “Faces Places”.

Around that narrative point, the film smoothly enters a realm of fantasy, so you cannot entirely be sure about what is exactly happening on the screen, but then there comes a sublime moment associated with the collaborative art project “Chiroptera”. With the score by Thomas Bangalter and the choreography by Damien Jalet, this ambitious art project powerfully resonates with the main theme of the film, and we come to reflect more on how art can actually make us regard our reality differently and then become more liberated than before.

In the end, the film returns to focusing on the relationship between Jay and his mother, who is certainly quite upset as looking for her son. Young performer Naïm El Kaldaoui is engaging in his effortless natural performance, and his expressive face sometimes speaks volume even when his character does not tell or signify much on the surface. He and his co-star Lyna Khoudri are convincing in their interactions early in the film, and that is the main reason why the last scene of the film is quietly touching.

Although its running time is only around 20 minutes, the film is efficient in its gentle handling of its story, mood, and character, and it is really fortunate for me and other South Korean audiences that the film is released in South Korean theaters along with Carax’s recent short film “It’s Not Me” (2024). The total running time of these two very different short films is just a bit more than 60 minutes, but I felt satisfied enough with both of these two interesting works, and I am already quite willing to revisit them again someday.

By the way, if you ask me which one I actually like more, I will say that “An Urban Allegory” won my heart while “It’s Not Me” intrigued my mind in many different directions, and I will also add that I usually follow my heart’s judgment in case of evaluating movies. While it is pretty amusing to see Carax emulating whatever Jean-Luc Godard struggled to do in those decidedly (and snobbishly) cerebral works during his later years, what Rohrwacher attempts to do along with JR somehow touched my heart a lot more than expected, though I must confess that my mind was initially baffled a little during its first few minutes. In short, this is one of more interesting short films I saw during this year, and it surely makes a wonderful double feature show along with “It’s Not Me”.