The entirety of the video is shot on a smartphone, bringing to life efficient use of resources marked by their own self-imposed limitation. The story portrays for us a single day in the life of the protagonist who finds himself in possession of a strange lighter. As he walks around London, playing with its magical abilities, lovely images are conjured before you. Lighting up its flame turns day into night, and extinguishing it reverses the effect. The visuals tell a beautiful story, coupled with an equally strong edit. The seamless transitions make the narrative more than what it already is until the fateful moment when the lighter finally disappears as quickly as it had appeared in the protagonist's life. The final product exhibits skill, sophistication, crisp storytelling and the lucid communication of all the intentions of the plot, marked by brevity as the cherry on top of it all.

The Lighter | Short Film Nominee

The brief narrative of the film invokes a dark reality, one defined by war sirens and imminent, destructive raids. However the world thus conjured has a noble cause at its heart, the message of hope. 


The narrative aims to remind the viewer of the invincibility of hope, and the undeniable light at the end of the tunnel. The protagonist is a woman who battles overwhelming mental and emotional demons. She is plagued by memories of violence, as the film endeavors to paint the lived reality of the innumerable Ukrainians who are dealing with the ravages of the war that has torn their homeland asunder. 

The film is presented as part of an initiative by the National Psychological Association, backed by the United Nations Development Programme, the European Union, and the governments of Denmark and Canada, to provide free mental health assistance to Ukrainians all over the world. The resultant film is a sincere, heartfelt endeavor, that conveys its intentions with lucidity and manages to present a realm of loss, heartache, loneliness, and the memory of what once was or could have been.

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