Genre and Tone
This is going to be a psychological thriller that takes a dark look at the realities of mental illness and its relation to love and survival: (specifically depression and anxiety). Delving into the emotional turmoil that burns in our protagonist. This is all set to the backdrop of a hostage thriller.
Narrative
To 'protect' his family and 'sacred love', Carson (32) has locked himself away following an incident. This causes his mental health to plummet. As months have gone by, his self-hatred and loneliness have begun to disturb the fabric of his own reality. He's forced to take action against his oppressive subconscious for the sake of the love he used to know.
He interrogates a row of figures in the search for a mysterious suitcase that will grant him "worthy" to return to his family. The figures take the shape of his father, his wife and a man named John, the man Carson desires to be.
It touches on various themes such as unconditional love, the self and survival.
Our Protagonist: Carson
Carson is a hopeless romantic with aspirations of standardised family and relationship values. He's paradoxical, a pessimistic idealist, a social reactionary, volatile, depressive, self-hating and hateful.
He has abandoned sentiment in the face of survival, but now faces the grief and desperation of losing what once made him feel alive. He struggles to shake his dangerous coping methods in the fear he won't be strong enough to survive to a brighter horizon.
Why am I making this film?
For this film, I've pulled a lot of things from my past, my present, and my worries for the future. I've had depression and anxiety since around 11 years old, and I'll have it until I die. I've tried to take those moments where I'm at my lowest to take the essence of depression and mental illness in general to pick apart and try and express 'the irrational' as true as I can.
Now, other than my personal issues, why do I feel the need to make it?
If you search for depression, anxiety, mental illness or anything else related, this is the way it's depicted.
Now, Google is clearly is not specialised in expressive art, but this is an example of the huge generalisation that is made upon subjects such as these. It's someone that's sad; someone has a sad, rainy brain. It's insulting to the reality that has put some people in irreversible situations.
Even in some popular films that are regarded as an honest depiction, completely trivialise it. For example: "Perks of Being a Wallflower" and "It's Kind of a Funny Story". They depict mental illness as a personality. It's a quirk, it's something that makes you interesting - you're better than others because you have it hard. And I used to love these films; because it displayed a fantasy where I could just let my demons consume me, and that would be fine. If anything, it would be a more interesting life. This is an extremely dangerous way to think.
This is not to say that other films that have depicted mental illness without care and honesty but I still find the main modern depiction especially to be condescending and shallow.
I want to be part of the right representation until it becomes properly recognised. I don't want to represent the sufferer as awful, but help people understand that depression can take you to where its "justified" to hate yourself. It's and illness that takes hold of a victim. I don't aim to make this film about redemption or pity. I simply want to express what it is and what it can become.