Sing (Mindenki, "Everybody") is a 2016 short film (25 minutes) from Hungary, directed by Kristof Deak.
It's set in Budapest in 1991. Zsofi, a girl of maybe 10 years old, has moved to a new elementary school. When asked what activities she'd like to pursue, Zsofi says she likes to sing. Zsofi is placed in the award-winning school choir, and becomes close friends with Liza, another girl in the choir. Zsofi's enjoyment of choir is ruined when the choir teacher, Miss Karen, tells Zsofi that she isn't good enough to actually sing. Instead, Zsofi is only to pretend to sing, merely mouthing the words.
Zsofi dutifully complies. One day Liza, who actually is an excellent singer, notices that her friend isn't really singing. When Zsofi tearfully confesses, an outraged Liza resolves to take action.
Not to be confused with Sing, an animated feature that also came out in 2016.
Tropes:
- Break the Cutie: Zsofi, at the beginning. She's very excited to join the choir and earn the approval of Miss Karen, only to be told that she's not good enough to perform with the others. This makes her extremely upset, but due to Miss Karen's imploring to not tell anyone, she feels unable to tell Liza, her best friend, leading her to break down in tears.
- Cherubic Choir: And a rebellious one.
- Children Are Innocent: Zsofi and Liza are able to convince the entire class to mime singing, due to the unfairness of what's happening to their classmates, in contrast to Miss Karen, who cruelly tells Zsofi to stop singing instead of just teaching her how to sing, which is her job!
- Cute, but Cacophonic: Zsofi, or so Miss Karen seems to think.
- It's All About Me: Miss Erika cares only about winning that competition and getting that free trip to Sweden. When the kids are all miming rather than singing on the stage, Erika says "You can't do this to me!"
- The Reveal: When Liza realizes that Zsofi is far from the only student who's been ordered to not sing.
- Sadist Teacher: Miss Erika is only too willing to demean and humiliate the kids in her class. When Liza calls her out on what she's doing, Erika makes all the kids who aren't really singing raise their hands.
- Serious Business: Middle-school choir competitions are apparently a big deal.
- Spoiler Title: If you speak Hungarian, the title kind of gives the ending away.
- Title Drop: Several times of course, but most notably at the talent show at the end, when an enraged Miss Erika hisses at her class to "Sing!"
