NAME: JOEL OKAI-NTOW

STUDENT NUMBER: BFAMP28049

INDIVIDUAL FILM ANALYSIS

 FILM TITLE: WORK

BY: Aneil Karia

PRODUCED BY: Scott O'donnell

Work is a BAFTA-nominated short film by Aneil Karia that delivers a powerful emotional and social message in just over 10 minutes. With immersive visuals and restrained acting, it explores themes of racial tension, trauma, and resilience through the lens of a young Black dancer in London.

From the start, the film follows Jess, the protagonist, through everyday routines like commuting and rehearsing but subtle cues suggest emotional unease. A racially charged encounter on a train shifts the tone, immersing the viewer in her fear, frustration, and helplessness, without needing verbal explanation.

 The core theme is the emotional labor of living under visible and invisible forms of aggression. Jess carries her pain through every space  her work, art, and daily life making movement a form of emotional survival, not just expression.

The film’s antagonist is both the aggressor on the train and a wider society that tolerates or ignores such behavior. The protagonist’s silence and posture speak volumes, while bystanders represent societal complicity, making the antagonist not just one man, but a system.

The climax comes through the visual storytelling  handheld camera work keeps us close to Jess’s experience. A long take inside the train builds tension, while the final dance sequence provides a cathartic emotional release, conveying through movement what words cannot.

 The lack of music throughout enhances realism, while its introduction during the final dance feels like an emotional breakthrough. This marks the resolution  not a tidy ending, but a continuation marked by inner release and silent strength. 

Overall, Work excels by embracing restraint and realism. It avoids clichés, choosing instead to let the audience feel and interpret the protagonist’s emotional journey. Its ambiguity mirrors real life, leaving a lasting impression that challenges viewers to reflect, not just watch.

The protagonist of the film is Jess, a young Black British woman who is a trained dancer. Her goal is to get through her day in peace, retain her dignity, and reclaim control over her identity in a world that continuously dehumanizes her whether through microaggressions or systemic pressure.

The antagonist isn’t a single person, but rather society itself expressed through; Workplace microaggressions, Street harassment, Police brutality and a world that constantly tries to box her in and shut her voice down. The antagonist’s goal, symbolically, is to limit Jess’s freedom, emotionally suppress her, and prevent her from expressing her identity, especially through movement (dance).

Jess is willing to struggle silently through a day that tests her boundaries at every level. She absorbs small aggressions from her co-workers without confrontation. And also  remains composed when wrongfully detained and humiliated by police. Despite it all, she keeps moving forward  but it builds up inside her like pressure in a dam. Her struggle isn’t just against others it’s internal too: between exploding or conforming, between expressing herself or being judged.

The turning point arrives near the end, when Jess finally allows herself to physically release the emotions she has been suppressing. She dances violently, passionately — a release that is both raw and necessary. It’s her unfiltered truth bursting out after being repressed by the day’s events.

This shift from passive endurance to active, bodily expression is powerful. It signals that while she may not have won, she refuses to be defeated.

The central difference in principle lies between Jess’s quiet strength, dignity, and desire for peace, and the hostile world’s demand for submission, silence, and compliance.She believes in expression, humanity, and presence, while society pushes her toward invisibility and suppression. It’s this fundamental clash that drives the tension of the film.

“WORK” is a powerful visual and emotional journey. Aneil Karia uses silence, movement, and realism to explore what it means to exist and resist in a world stacked against you. Jess, though seemingly passive at first, becomes a powerful figure of resistance and truth.