There is no dearth of content on gender which is why choosing it as a predominant theme of your short film also exposes one to the danger of it being threadbare. Hold Your Breath, fortunately, steers clear of this trap and instead provides a convincing and needfully disconcerting account of a date gone wrong. The film opens with a girl arriving at the house of a boy she is meeting in person for the first time. Her unease and caution, which accompanies the visit to a stranger's house, is clear for she has chosen bring her best friend along. The situation, which unwittingly turns into a double date of sorts, also helps to accentuate the contrast between how men and women approach the same situation - one of rejection of sexual advances. The film does a notable job of capturing the nuances and subtleties of gender dynamics without giving in to voyeurism or sentimentalism. On the whole, it becomes a poignant comment on sexual abuse and molestation, reminding the viewer that it's more rampant and normalised than we allow ourselves to believe.

Hold Your Breath | Short Film of the Day

Trigger Warning: Domestic and sexual abuse 

The first visual we are introduced to in the film is of an intimate setting - early morning in a bedroom with sunlight streaming in. However, despite the potential ease of the situation, a sense of disconcertment has already been set in motion. 

The narrative develops gradually to reveal the true forces that are at work here, allowing the viewer to unpack the discomfort they have felt so far. It is in this unpacking of the narratorial layers that the primary message of the film lies. It portrays the terrible reality of domestic abuse by taking us into the life of a couple. The abuse in itself becomes the overarching character in the plot, explaining the many ways in which the abusers isolate and torment their victims. 

The film serves to draw our attention to the staggering rise in domestic abuse of both women and children during the Covid-19 lockdown in the UK. This, in turn, also allows a compelling and extremely relevant insight to the viewer about the manner in which abuse operates even within the framework of what would should be a space of comfort, love and affection, and the horrific shape it took in a pandemic-ridden world.

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