The Present (2020)

Nominated for Best Live Action Short     So far this is the only one from this category I've been able to watch.  I might have to sign up for a free trial of some niche streamer to get another one.

Yusef (Saleh Bakri) is a Palestinian living in the West Bank.  For his anniversary, he takes his daughter Yasmine (Mariam Kanj) to the market so he can buy a new refrigerator for his wife (Mariam Basha).  A simple errand made Kafkaesque by the hostility and disregard of the access guards.

I don't know that there's anything I am less qualified to talk about than the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.  Bureaucratic nonsense enabling petty tyrants, however, is universal.  Remove the geographical minefield and what you have here are the Haves and the Have Nots.  Reductive?  Maybe.  But this is the perspective the filmmakers wanted shown.  The Have Nots struggle for basic dignity while the Haves sneer and toss crumbs.  

If you wanted to be depressed for 24 minutes, it's currently streaming on Netflix.