# ID this surreal short movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 2, 2008, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-surreal-short-movie/443644 "2008-04-02T05:12:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-surreal-short-movie/443644/1 "2008-04-02T05:12:31Z")
Saw this on TV a long time (maybe 20 years ago), and I think it might have been a student project. A young guy is being chased around what looks like an underground parking lot by two guys riding 10-speed bicycles and wearing masks and mirrored sunglasses. The protagonist is getting increasingly desperate as these weird guys keep gaining on him. Finally they corner him, and as he cowers you hear an offscreen voice say: “Tag, you’re It.” The last shot is of the progagonist gasping or sobbing as he holds one of the masks in his hands, and you can see two figures, running away, reflected in the sunglasses. I thought the title was something like “Square One” (as in, “back to . . .”), but I don’t see anything under this title that looks like the right movie, via either Google or IMDB. Anyone? Any other surreal short movie memories you’d like to share? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-surreal-short-movie/443644/2 "2008-04-02T16:57:25Z")
There was one about a guy who gets trapped in a phone booth, and ignored by passers-by, and eventually gets loaded into a warehouse full of other people trapped just like him. ETA: I see it was [a foreign film](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Cabina) ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-surreal-short-movie/443644/3 "2008-04-02T17:25:54Z")
Might it have been a commercial (or at least, footage from the film used in a commercial)? I recall something similar to that described in the OP, but in my head it was a commercial, and I would’ve been rather young ~20 years ago to be watching student films. ---
**Author:** ![uncle\_squeegee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b5e925/32.png) [@uncle\_squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/uncle_squeegee)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-surreal-short-movie/443644/4 "2008-04-03T01:32:04Z")
The Orphan with the Miraculous Voice is a Slovenian film about a kid in polyester that came out of a poster stolen from a flea markets, who turns everybody he touches into clones of himself, they all sing a song with the line “Mama, mama, mama” in it; the plot concerns efforts to stop him from taking over the world. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-surreal-short-movie/443644/5 "2008-04-03T02:41:05Z")
[QUOTE=Koxinga] Anyone? Any other surreal short movie memories you’d like to share? [/QUOTE] You can see a lot of them here: [UbuWeb Film & Video](http://www.ubu.com/film/) ---
**Author:** ![Lazlo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lazlo/32/9678_2.png) [@Lazlo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lazlo)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-surreal-short-movie/443644/6 "2008-04-03T09:22:51Z")
[QUOTE=MrDibble] There was one about a guy who gets trapped in a phone booth, and ignored by passers-by, and eventually gets loaded into a warehouse full of other people trapped just like him. ETA: I see it was [a foreign film](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Cabina) [/QUOTE] It’s on youtube and I just finished watching it. Wow. Just, wow. ETA: search for La Cabina. Don’t click the wiki link as it gives it all away. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-surreal-short-movie/443644/7 "2008-04-03T09:36:08Z")
Koxinga writes: \> Anyone? Any other surreal short movie memories you’d like to share? Well, there’s _La Jetee_, possibly the greatest short film of all time: > **[La Jetée](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Jet%C3%A9e)** > > La Jetée (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}French pronunciation: \[la ʒəte\]) is a 1962 French science fiction featurette directed by Chris Marker and associated with the Left Bank artistic movement. Constructed almost entirely from still photos, it tells the story of a post-nuclear war experiment in time travel. It is 28 minutes long... ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-surreal-short-movie/443644/8 "2008-04-03T17:09:40Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] Koxinga writes: \> Anyone? Any other surreal short movie memories you’d like to share? Well, there’s _La Jetee_, possibly the greatest short film of all time: > **[La Jetée](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Jet%C3%A9e)** > > La Jetée (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}French pronunciation: \[la ʒəte\]) is a 1962 French science fiction featurette written and directed by Chris Marker and associated with the Left Bank artistic movement. Constructed almost entirely from still photos, it tells the stable time loop story of a post-nuclear war experiment in time ... [/QUOTE] Not nearly as surreal as my pick for the [greatest short film ever](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020530/).