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.

The Belly Conspiracy | Short Film of the Day

From suspense to thrill to dark comedy to gore and body horror, 'Dredge' packs it all in a concise, brief manner. Other than the action that unfolds before you, the film is primarily a stringing together of conversations. A woman who is conducting seedy business with the 'Swiss' is deeply unhappy about her professional outcomes. With imminent financial woes as well as trouble with law enforcement, she is at the end of her road. 

On the other hand, the person who mows her lawn, is in a different kind of desperate situation, indeed triggered by her own respective work and money troubles. As this subtle parallel is drawn, the plot comes into being. The manner in which these pressures get expressed and articulated lead to two gruesome acts, each becoming the defining feature of the two women, allowing the film to express its intentions in a lucid manner. Additionally, there is an overlap of these stories with a third character, and a performance marked by clear skill and conviction, that ties the whole narrative together, while also allowing a bridge between its two predominant strands. 

The various elements further put a class hierarchy in place, while at the same time, offering a comment on the disastrous results that are born out of a desperate bid to survive. It is precisely these aspects of the storytelling that, despite a few rough edges in the handling of its visuals, eventually ensure that the film presents a composite whole to the audience to interact with.

Dredge | Short Film Nominee

The pandemic brought with it the most disconcerting, isolating and hopeless circumstances, to say the least. In such a scenario, the circumstance of a creative person, deprived of their work and ability to express their internal dilemmas with the world by way of their art, was especially hard. The narrative is a portrayal of the same reality. 

Confined indoors, with no food to eat, in a world that remains quiet and desolate in the wake of the pandemic, the protagonist, an artist himself, has little left to do than scroll through others’ social media updates, specifically about food, on his phone. However, as the hunger and isolation mounts, a different understanding of reality awaits him. 

 It is in the realization of the same, both internally, for the protagonist, and externally and visually for the viewer, that the title of the film and its main message are unpacked. The final result becomes an earnest attempt to establish the premise and follow it through till the conclusion.

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