We’ve all had weird job interviews, but this is ridiculous. British director Faisal Qureshi’s five-minute short The Applicant starts off as an unsettling look at an awkward job application, but before fade-out it turns into something else — something way more disturbing. To say more would be to say too much, but what appeals about this film isn’t so much its subject matter as Qureshi’s elegant style: The use of Beethoven’s familiar “Moonlight” sonata on the soundtrack at first emphasizes the rather dry, antiseptic nature of the film’s corporate setup, but the director quickly transforms the familiar piece into an otherworldly lament. To see a decidedly different side of this filmmaker, check out another, even shorter film of his, The Lift, available on AtomFilms. —Bilge Ebiri
