Three strangers answer 36 questions in a social experiment and become friends for life.


TRIANGLE is used with permission from Peter Engelmann. Learn more at   / trianglegradshort  .


Three strangers gather for a social experiment, which will be documented on camera. Taking its cue from the famous New York Times "36 Questions" that supposedly lead to love, these three people will be asked unique, deepreaching questions, designed to generate answers that create an "instant friendship" that will bond them for life as friends.

The experiment goes well at first, with their answers revealing both commonalities and their personality differences, which they accept with grace and good humor. But as the questions go on, they discover the experiment has a different agenda altogether.

Directed and written by Peter Engelmann, this penetrating, subversive short drama uses a fascinating social experiment as its springboard to explore the idea of interconnection in ways that are both heartwarming and disturbing. It builds upon the famous "36 Questions That Lead to Love," a series of inquiries that went viral for the New York Times. Designed by psychologist Arthur Aron, the questions create intimacy through mutual vulnerability. Both those qualities are certainly created in the story, but then it takes that warm, inviting state and parlays it to a much more complicated place.

The film has the look and feel of a modern prestige documentary, shot with a clean, gleaming look that feels upscale, optimistic and neutral. The three strangers Perp, Stan and Vic answer the questions with charm and specificity, revealing the concerns, worries, joys and pleasures of their individual lives. It's a testament to the excellent writing and performances that we believe in the richness of these characters and their growing friendliness and bond with one another.

At first, the film generates momentum through the fascinating process of seeing three strangers become friends as they answer the questions, exhibiting compassion and kindness to one another. Actors Lili Vetlenyi, Jozsef S. Kovacs and Daniel Gaal are all excellent in their roles as the three strangers, giving subtle, precise performances with a solid sympathy between all of them.

But at some point, the narrative shifts, revealing a new genre element and another agenda at work, both within the world of the film and in its overall design as a narrative. Watching this shift happen is not a facile, shocking plot twist, but the development of a more complex, morally complicated dimension of the relationship between these three people, and for viewers who make it to this point, it makes for engrossing watching.

Complex, rewarding and risktaking, TRIANGLE examines both the humanist impulse of the "36 Questions" and questions the limitations of such humanism. The film poses questions at the end that are quite profound, positing perhaps that qualities of civility, compassion and kindness cannot exist and flourish without the equally important qualities of justice and accountability. The narrative also questions what it means to be accountable, and provokes us to look at how farreaching and consequential our impact is on one another. That impact can be profoundly warm and lifeaffirming, and it can also engender pain and suffering. That mutual impact is something to be aware of and responsible for because it's often the most lasting thing we give one another.