HAND IN HAND (2019)

If you asked people about the origins of the handshake, you may get something about how it was used as a symbol that the hand was free of weapons, or maybe even to prove there were no hidden weapons up the sleeve. The truth is that historians aren’t exactly sure where or when it started because it pops up in so many different cultures in so many times, often just a prevailing symbol of two sides joining together. As for how it went from diplomats to every day greetings? Apparently the Quakers found it a better solution to bowing and other supplication.

So, if nothing else, today’s video entertainment has brought you a fun fact to trot out at the next meeting while everyone douses their hands in sanitizer. But this is all related to the 2019 short film HAND IN HAND (aka DAS ALTE LAGER), written and directed by Ennio Ruschetti. The Swiss-made short is delightfully brief with a great all killer/no filler approach that we can all appreciate. The plot summary is as follows:

Only a formal handshake separates two politicians from a sealed contract. But as both stubbornly try to gain the upper hand within the gesture, their grim intransigence takes on a monstrous life of its own.

I originally saw this online at SXSW 2020 (the ghost year) and found it utterly delightful. It doesn’t require any dialogue with its clear narrative and characterizations, and yet the small details make up a robust world onto itself. It’s fun, funny, and wildly inventive.