A 13-minute short, this Sami Aleksi Hakkarainen directed film, entitled Sympatiaa Kreivi Draculalle in the original Finnish, takes one of the megatext tropes and turns it on its head. Vampires and wealth have long been associated with one another. In this Dracula (Petteri Palonen) is financially impoverished and, whilst the subversion of the wealth trope has been done before, this makes for a particularly destitute Dracula.
He awakens and, by the bed, flowers have wilted – I tied this into the trope of plant life wilting in the presence of some vampires. In the fridge are two pots of blood – one labelled A and the other B – there is very little in them. He has had a letter from the Social Insurance Institute. He decides to visit.
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| last dregs of blood |
Outside the institute a young girl (Päivi Sairanen) seems to be begging but she is looking for a friend and not money, In the Institute, he has applied not for money but for blood. The clerk (Ari Tykkyläinen) says they cannot action it as he has an employment requirement. As he is not willing to take full time employment, they can’t help him. He needs a litre of blood or he’ll die, he says, but the bureaucrat won’t budge.
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| drinking from the wrist |
Dracula goes on to have misadventures until he discovers the value of having a friend – especially one who knows the benefits of dumpster diving for essentials… This was fun, in a dour sort of way. The fact that Dracula is without his wealth was a nice idea and works particularly well in this short. Thanks to Everlost for putting me on to it.
The imdb page is here.
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