A misty, winter wasteland is the viewer’s first introduction to the film’s world. The image that it invokes is of a liminal space defined by its eeriness. It's further coupled with an intrinsic beauty that lends it a strangely atmospheric quality. Amidst it all is located an unnamed protagonist who is lost, and plagued by strange lights in the sky. As he attempts to find his way, the path only gets more and more mysterious and circuitous. 

The screenplay is beautiful in the construction of this space, alongside its two primary performances - our hapless, confused protagonist, and a woman’s presence in the center of a non-descript realm consumed by darkness all around her. Further, the title of the film is thoughtfully chosen - does it refer to a phone call? Does it refer to the strange space the protagonist is unable to make sense of? It serves to deliberately nestle these questions within the narrative. 

The establishment of the world is achieved with such impact that the short in its current form offers a premise for a longer film. It has all the right elements to capture the viewer’s attention. Taking us deeper into its world would help to expand on the narratorial construction which already presents deep potential, skill, and ease in everything that it wants to convey.

Holding Pattern  | Short Film of the Month

Trigger warning: This film includes strobe lighting effects that could be triggering for some viewers with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is recommended. 

The film presents a singular union of ideas about the duality of the self with unrestricted, unbound appetites. The thematic exploration further asserts that the two, in fact, are intrinsic to each other. When a dark, denied self finally rises from the deep pits where it might have lain dormant and forgotten for a long, long time, it unleashes upon the world an inexorable, unstoppable hunger, underlines the film. If one self stays in the light, the other continues to grow and expand in the dark until it reaches a point of no return. 

The film talks of a monstrous being, an ever-consuming, ever-hungering woman, and the endless darkness that she encompasses. She could very well be the monster within us all, the monster of our denied selves. She could be every human with their greed and lust and forever increasing desire to consume more and more. 

The narrative ties its artistic and creative intentions with artificial intelligence to realize its vision, and in the process, presents to the viewer a phantasmagoria of images about a scheme of the inner self to let itself be known through a conspiracy with appetite. This destructive hunger that reigns free remains meticulously imagined and executed throughout.

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