
A Matter of Size
2009

2015
Director
Kevork Aslanyan
Runtime
21 minutes
Average Rating
No ratings yetSynopsis
Bulgaria-based director Kevork Aslanyan’s European Short Film Festival-winning sci-fi short sees a man trying to overcome an obstacle of gravitas for love. In a dystopian post-communist world, Constantine and his father Atanas share a small flat in a run-down apartment block. A tragic accident has disturbed gravity on Earth beyond repair, so everyone weighing less than 120 kilos flies up into space. With only 60kg body weight, Constantine cannot go outside, nor does he want to. Stuck in the flat, at the mercy of the electrical mood swings of a household gravitational normalizer, Constantine leads an almost normal life. He is content spending the days looking at the world through his window. Until the beautifully plump stewardess moving in next door changes everything.
Overall Score
Good
Category Breakdown
LGBTQ+ Representation
The film lacks explicit depictions of LGBTQ+ identities. The central romance between Constantine and his neighbor follows a traditional heteronormative structure. It avoids romantic perfection tropes by focusing on physical compatibility within a distorted reality.
Gender Representation
The story disrupts conventional beauty standards by centering on a plump female character as a catalyst for change. While this challenges aesthetic hierarchies, the primary narrative agency remains with the male protagonist.
Racial & Ethnic Diversity
Set in a post-communist Bulgarian context, the film moves away from Anglo-centric storytelling. However, there is insufficient evidence to confirm a high degree of racial blending or intersectional casting.
Religious & Cultural Diversity
The narrative uses a dystopian setting to critique systemic and environmental instability. It explores how domestic spaces become sites of both confinement and sanctuary amidst decaying infrastructure.
Disability Representation
Gravity serves as a sophisticated metaphor for physical limitation and sensory confinement. The protagonist's inability to exist outdoors is treated as a fundamental aspect of his identity rather than a source of mockery.
Strengths
Areas for Improvement
AI Analysis
Kevork Aslanyan uses speculative fiction to explore how physical and systemic constraints shape human agency. The film's strength lies in its ability to turn a sci-fi premise into a nuanced study of identity and social decay. By subverting traditional body-standard tropes and utilizing a localized Bulgarian setting, the work offers a perspective distinct from mainstream cinema. It replaces typical Hollywood aesthetics with a focus on survival and emotional evolution within a broken world. While the film lacks explicit representation of LGBTQ+ themes or diverse racial casting, its metaphorical approach to disability and its critique of systemic instability provide a meaningful, progressive narrative.

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