Camouflage (19:04)
IMDb; Mooves; YouTube

This 2021 short film was presented by Dust in 2023.

This short is from the Netherlands. There's not a ton of dialogue, but what there is is in English. It begins with a giant tentacled monster apparently attacking the city, but it's soon killed by a vigilante named De Jager. (While watching the film, I thought De Jager was a woman, but reading a bit about the short online, apparently he was a man.) The attack and De Jager's response to it is witnessed by a man named Amouf, who seems horrified by the whole situation. Eventually we learn that he is one of these creatures, called "Jellies", and is only disguised as a human. So of course he's terrified that the truth will be discovered. But he's clearly not a monster like the Jelly we saw De Jager kill. I'm not sure why some Jellies are huge and some, like Amouf, are human-sized, nor why some act like monsters but not all do. Nor why the monstrous Jellies don't seem to speak. I feel like it could be that the people who hate or fear Jellies might simply misunderstand their intentions, so I don't understand why none of the Jellies try to plead their innocence, or anything. Maybe at some point they lose the ability to speak? Or maybe I'm overthinking it. In any event, at one point De Jager recruits the reluctant Amouf to become one of the hunters who work with him.

I don't want to reveal any more of the story, but I'd say the film is a powerful allegory for... well, presumably any number of real world events, like witch hunts (whether literal or metaphorical). The Jellies could be stand-ins for Jews or LGBTQ people or other persecuted groups. But given a certain revelation I'm not going to spoil about the story, it could have even broader implications. I don't know. I'm sort of left with unanswered questions, which is a bit frustrating. But I'm still glad to have seen the short, and objectively it may well deserve a higher rating than I've given it.