Two masked people sit across a table. The ensuing conversation reveals them to be gods, perhaps Zeus and Hera, regretting a fate where they are allowed only a single night of union every hundred years. A mention of a brother who betrayed them invokes Hades for the viewer, as his hounds further conjure an image of Hell. The film strives to be a philosophical engagement with ideas of existence, humanity, creation of the world as well as the separation of the lovers. They ponder over the fate of humans and maybe even finally fulfilling their age-old desire of free will. Parallel to this is the horizon of expectation that the title of the film has established in the viewer's mind right from the beginning. The rest of the narrative simply serves to reveal whether or not it would come in the manner in which we expect it. Will the two gods part at the end of the night to again be separated for a century or would humankind be sacrificed, a set of people devolving into a world of chaos anyway without any help from the gods, so that the two can remain together? The question has already been set in motion by the film's opening visual, and it is only in its conclusion that the answer lies.

Last Night on Earth | Short Film Nominee

Ichor, which simply means the blood of gods, ensures that the film has led the viewer by hand to its core intentions right at the beginning with its very title. Ichor also has a link to human wounds, which is employed further in the narrative when the protagonist asserts his own knowledge of wounds. In terms of the story, what begins as a losing battle for him and his fellow-soldiers in the nineteenth century eventually comes full circle in the twenty first. The narrative strives to bring in adventure, action, fantasy and drama to further embellish its story. Our protagonist is a man who has known loss and personal tragedy. Consequently, when he finds himself staring directly into the face of death in the form of a blood-sucking being who has killed all his companions, there is little that makes him flinch. He is ready to embrace his end, and yet, life has something else in store for him. The story further invokes Mary Shelley and the inspiration she drew from the myth of Prometheus for her masterpiece, Frankenstein. The film endeavors to invoke a conversation on life and death, on loss, love, tragedy, and more explicitly, one's idea of the nation. It is well-intentioned and sincere, almost theatrical in its performances and character developments. However, if the same theatricality could have been replaced with a little more effortlessness, it would have benefitted the film more.

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