Deadline (2025 | Taiwan | 118 minutes | Kiwi Chow)

In this near-future drama children in an upper crust private school are feeling the pressures of impending final exams, but this isn’t like what we went through. The pressure is beyond ruthless with school, parents and future all looming like a monster overhead. An anonymous “suicide” note litters the school grounds and while teachers try to find its origin, students are succumbing to the stress of it all and may actually make the contents of the note a reality.

The concept isn’t new, even SIFF had Japan’s Happyend as part of last year’s lineup with a similar theme. What makes Deadline different is its intimately dark look at a few students’ desperate desire to “win” (whatever form that takes). What I really stuck with me is the lack of black and white, right and wrong. Instead, the entire film gropes blindly in varying degrees of grey all in the name of advancement and excessive pride. Should the kids be allowed to do something harmful for a leg up? Should the adults cancel the test altogether to address wide-spread mental health concerns? Will that even help when the cut-throat world of college applications is waiting for them just around the corner?

Up till now their entire lives have revolved around the notion that they’re utter failures if they aren’t number one, especially at an elite high school like this one. What could even be done at this point with such a toxic societal system in place? No character could be considered evil or wholly bad in the story, only parents pushing for excellence (hopefully for the good of their children, but most definitely for their own vanity), teachers attempting to help their wards with questionable methods, a principal who hopes to raise the bar for his institution, but faltering when he finds its at the expense of their mental health and the kids themselves confused, scared and determined.

To say the mindset and intensity of the students’ pain is disturbing is an understatement, but Director Kiwi Chow pulled no punches in revealing the reality of academia in one of the top performing and highest adolescent suicide rated areas in the world. Definitely be aware of sensitive content, but it was one of the best films at SIFF as far as I’m concerned.

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All showings of Deadline at SIFF have passed, but I can’t imagine it won’t make its way back to their theaters later this year. Let’s hope, it’s well worth the wait.