The film explores the deeply disturbing space of domestic abuse, but more specifically, the absolute and crushing difficulty of escaping that space. The said exploration remains crisp and swift, as well as impactful in the force with which it shares its ideas. 

The viewer is presented with a woman, the protagonist, who is bruised and hurt in an appalling manner. While she takes care of her injuries, her young son, completely unaware of her mother’s plight, watches playfully violent antics of cartoon characters on the television in the next room. 

The film employs the innocent, childish images from the cartoon as a juxtaposition against the brutal reality of the physical assault of the protagonist, to drive its message home. Frenzied texts from her husband continue, “Can we just talk?”, “It won’t happen again.”, and the viewer already knows the implicit responses to them - the direction this talk will eventually take won't be very different from the current scenario, and that it will indeed happen again. In the process, an urgent message is also offered, but without making the narrative didactic, overly-sentimental or superficial.

Come Back | Short Film of the Day

The notions pertaining to sin, guilt, temptation and punishment often operate within absolutes to the extent of leaving no space for the possibility of redemption. The neatly defined categories of black and white, completely devoid of even a suggestion of greyness, comes to shape and mould institutions like religion and, in turn, their relationship with sexuality and other bodily desires. The short film is an attempt to engage with the same thematic concerns, employing visuals that employ biblical and medieval motifs and imagery. 

 The final result, in the process, becomes not an attack against a particular religion, but instead remains a piece of work that compels the viewer to toy with a reality that extends beyond these monolithic structures, whichever form they may have acquired in their own individual lives. The poetry of the visuals is significant for its otherworldliness as well as the surreal darkness it invokes on screen. 

 The tone, approach and treatment of the many ideas that rest within the folds of In the Dark make it a uniquely notable film to watch, leaving the viewer with the welcome prospect of more such projects by the team.

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