RVA’s International Short Film Contest Awards: “Dominoes” reminds man that nature cannot be fooled
Dominoes doesn’t start with a noisy bang. It smiles first and that is what makes it dangerous. Like our age. Like our greed.
Set almost entirely in a quiet coffee shop, the film unfolds as a polite conversation between power and conscience. Mr. Joaquin, a confident politician-developer, speaks the language we know too well: growth, jobs, progress. Ms. Montoya, an environmental planner, responds with caution, restraint, and memory. As they speak, Joaquin casually arranges dominoes on the table, unaware that he is staging a disaster that one awaits. We smirk away warning signs, convinced we are in control. Until we are not.
Pope Francis reminds us that the earth is not an object to be exploited but “our common home.” Dominoes visualizes this truth with chilling simplicity. One push. One fall. Then another. What looks harmless becomes irreversible. Nature does not retaliate out of anger; it responds out of law. As St. Paul would put it, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap” (Gal 6:7). This is not God’s punishment. It is consequence. We suffer because we forget that we stand on fragile ground. A sturdy ground which is made fragile by our actions.
The moment the dominoes collapse, reality follows suit, a landslide at the construction site. The metaphor becomes real and dangerously tangible. The illusion of control shatters. What we thought we owned turns against us, not violently, but truthfully.
A line attributed to physicist Richard Feynman echoes throughout the film: “Nature cannot be fooled.” That single sentence could be the film’s subtitle. Stewardship, not domination, is the vocation given to us in Genesis. We were never meant to be monsters who consume, but caretakers who belong.
Directed by Gabriell Anne Gammad, Dominoes is sharply written and tightly executed. Francine Ovejas, who wears multiple creative hats, from script to editing and sound, ensures narrative precision, while Lui Rojas’ cinematography sustains an atmosphere of quiet tension. Performances by Rommel Jimenez and Sheila Marie Jimenez carry the moral weight without shouting out too loud.
This is a short film that lingers. Watch it, not for answers, but for the unsettling realization that the dominoes are already lined up. And the next move is ours.
