Short Animated Film «In the Dark»
Film Overview
Format: Authorial short animated film Runtime: 3 minutes 12 seconds Genre: Surrealist drama, poetic animation Target Audience: 16+, viewers of auteur and experimental cinema, lovers of surrealism, visual poetry, and psychological stories. Literary Basis: Original poetry Themes: Love, intimacy, loneliness, memory, dreams, and loss.The film will appeal to viewers who appreciate auteur animation, visual poetry, and unconventional narrative approaches.Through surreal imagery and metamorphoses, the film engages with universal human experiences—love, tenderness, solitude, and loss. Its distinctiveness lies in its ability not so much to tell a story as to allow the viewer to experience it—to find a reflection of their own memories and emotions within the fantastic visuals.Plot
As she drifts off beside her beloved, the girl plunges into a whimsical world of dreams, woven from memories, emotions, and fantastical images. Here, a tiny ship sails across an endless sea, sphinxes watch over the lovers, and elephants guard their tranquility.
But gradually, the fairy-tale world begins to change. Tenderness gives way to anxiety, familiar images distort, and a mysterious Golden Knight appears behind the protagonists. The young woman finds herself in a vortex of painful memories, where love intertwines with loneliness, fear, and a sense of loss.
The journey leads her from the magical realm into the cold reality of a big city, where memories slowly dissolve into the darkness. Yet, even where fairy-tale creatures vanish and the boundaries of the past fade, hope for a new encounter remains.
Characters
She is a sensitive and dreamy girl who experiences the story of love through the world of her own dreams, fantasies, and memories.
He is a young man whose image gradually shifts from tender and intimate to cold and alienated.
Elephants embody the delicacy, fragility, and vulnerability of feelings. They become witnesses to the collapse of the lovers' fairy-tale world.
Poem excerpts and illustrations
I fly down the stairs,
and behind me elephants
trumpet, weeping:
«Where are we to go?
Homeless, small,
with enormous ears,
as if drawn in a primer
with crayons.»
We were both boundless, tender, laughing and hiding from each other
«In the Dark» is a story of love, memory, and feelings that never truly fade. Through surreal imagery, metamorphosis, and poetic narration, the film explores the delicate boundary between dream and reality, tenderness and solitude.
«Wherever you are, wherever I am, we will meet in the dark.»
