TT Sci Fi Short 'Panuru – Cyborg 1.1.' is Intriguing and Confounding

By Redmanwriter on June 22, 2024

Julien Neaves, Caribbean Head Writer

Plot: A police officer must reunite with his beloved daughter, who's trapped in a post-apocalyptic parallel universe governed by futuristic bio-engineered creatures before the world ends on his timeline.

Review: At the Film and Folklore Festival 2024 earlier this year I missed the premiere of short film Panuru - Cyborg 1.1. directed, written and produced by Kelsey Winston Noel of Cyber Glitch Production. But I (and the rest of the viewing public) received a second chance when it debuted on GT Network on Father's Day. And I found the Sci Fi thriller something of a mixed bag. With moderate SPOILERS let's dive into it.

Hello? Anybody home? I selling wash cloths $5 for one. Two for $10

Noel describes himself as an animator/environment artist and the animation is the strongest aspect of Panuru. It's not at the level of a Hollywood production but it is very well done with cool character designs, detailed environments and a deft use of light and shadow. It was clear that a lot of work went into the project, and I can give it an easy recommendation on the visuals alone.

I also appreciated the uniqueness of the story. It would have been easy for Noel to copy one of the plethora of science fiction stories that have appeared on the small and big screen, but he wisely chose to come up with an original tale. I have watched a lot of Sci Fi (and I mean A LOT) in my many years as a viewer and a reviewer but a parallel world that is menaced by hybrid animal creatures is not something that I can say I have seen. And I would definitely be interested in seeing more of it. In terms of audio, the voice work and sound effects and are all pretty solid.

Cluck cluck suckers!

But Panuru is not without its issues. The first half of the film has a super dark and delightfully unnerving atmosphere but that is undermined every time they showed the main antagonist, which looks like a one-eyed chicken. He is supposed to be creepy and intimidating but he just looks kind of silly. We get a brief glimpse of another creature, a human/bird hybrid, and he looked pretty dang good. Maybe we should have gotten more of him rather than chicken guy.

The biggest issue with the Sci Fi short, however, is the second half which is a flashback. While I always enjoy the incorporation of the steelpan (Trinidad and Tobago's national instrument) into films, the attempt to connect it to the first half in the parallel world was too ambiguous. There were some other events in the second half that only served to confuse what was previously a relatively straightforward story. The flashback goes on a bit long and adds little to the overall plot nor does much in the way of character development. The ending also feels more like the end of a pilot episode of a webseries rather than a satisfying conclusion to a short film.

That said, Noel gets enough right here to make Panuru worth checking out and to spark interest in his next project.

Editor Jules' Score: 6 out of 10

You can watch Panuru - Cyborg 1.1. for yourself by clicking here. And you can check out more Caribbean Sci Fi short film reviews below:

Julien "Editor Jules" Neaves is a TARDIS-flying, Force-using Trekkie whose bedroom stories were by the Cryptkeeper, learned to be a superhero from Marvel, but dreams of being Batman. I love promoting Caribbean film (Cariwood), creating board games and I am an aspiring author. I say things like "13 flavours of awesome sauce". Read more.