Watching children act is one of my favorite things. Especially if they are believable. It’s refreshing to see, even more so when they are not seasoned or professional child actors. There is an authenticity it brings to the film when child actors get it right.

This is why the children are the first thing on my list of what I liked about Rahman.

I believed their performance, it was honest and not overplayed. They carried the story well, and owned their roles as leads. This made it easy for me to see the happenings in the film from their own point of view as opposed to mine.

 The sound design is the second thing on my fav list. The score set the tone for the film without being on the nose, which I really dug. The sound is crisp and clear. It’s also real, you hear everything you should expect to hear based on what is in the scene – the ambient sounds, the foley sound.

 Rahman is a simple story, told in an appropriate amount of time, it didn’t drag, neither was it rushed. The pacing was right, which is not a very easy thing to do in a short film under 10 minutes.

With the cinematography, I liked that there were no camera gymnastics, “extra”-type shots or anything over-the-top and it worked great. The visual tone of the film complemented the story. The colour, the mostly free/floating camera, the shot selection, all worked.

I enjoyed watching this film and most of all I enjoyed it’s subtlety and simplicity, in both the story and the execution of the story.

Rahman the first film that I have seen from Seun P. Opabisi and I definitely look forward to more from this filmmaker. I think he’s one to watch.