If You Should Return, You’ll Never Leave.
After a middle-aged father falls mysteriously into a coma that transports him to an idealised version of his past, his daughter must do everything necessary to rescue him from an eternal trap.
Upcoming Screenings
Sun 6th Sept, Everyman Cinema, Plymouth, Devon (Featuring W : A Return to Oz), Romford, London, from 5:30pm. Get your tickets here.
Sun 6th Sept, Romford Lumiere (Romford Short Film Festival), Romford, London, from 10:30am. Get your tickets here.
Fri 18th Sept, Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) (Short Spotlight Film Festival), Birmingham, from 4pm. Get your tickets here.
Thur 25th Sept, ODEON Brighton (New Genesis Film Festival), Brighton, from 3pm. Get your tickets here.
Statement from Director
The film will be a meditation on memory, especially how music and spaces influence it, and a cautionary tale for living in the past. It will also be an exploration into a generational divide between two subjects of different childhoods, Layla and Mike (Millennials / Gen Z and Gen X), respectively. The initial desire was to devise the story came from wanting to make a film in a school at night. There is something incredibly liminal about the concept, and in developing it, many eerie questions arise — What else would be there? Is it your ‘home’ anymore? Liminal spaces, or more the modern term ‘backrooms’, having a recent cult resurgence in internet and gaming culture, are physically described as spaces of a familiar setting, such as a school, train station, or office rooms, that are now reduced to stillness and lifelessness. But metaphysically, it represents a state of mind, a transitionary period between one stage of life and the next.
Our theory is that it is rooted in nostalgia and in one’s subconscious desire to return to it. This is the desire that Mike has. Furthermore, one of the arcs of a child’s maturity is recognising the flaws in their parents and perhaps the desire to not manifest those flaws themselves, which is what Layla represents. Layla’s childhood is implied through the events in the script. In Mike’s vision, we see a young Layla curled up in a ball in distress at the end of the party table, implying some kind of trauma episode for Layla, that Mike remembers, of sensory overload. Mike’s implied history comes in the form of the figures or dancers, which are revealed to resemble a picture of his childhood friends in his living room. I like to think that in his youth he was an avid dancer with this troupe, with this enthusiasm and energy fading away with age.
The tone and pacing will be different in the dream sequence (Mike’s POV) and the real-world scenes (Layla’s POV). Mike’s visions, especially the dance sequence, will be shot not unlike a music video, lit as practically as possible through the disco lights and Mike’s torch. We would present the vast widths of the school Mike inhabits with uncomfortable 18mm lens close-ups on Mike’s emotional arc from hesitant to utterly hypnotised and absorbed in the dance. For cinematography and editing, inspirations and references include Climax (2018), At Eternity’s Gate (2019), and Insidious (2010), to name a few. The real-world scenes, Layla’s POV, will contrast this with a simpler, stripped-back style of filmmaking and coverage, akin to a kitchen sink drama or a piece of theatre with long wide takes. Films of Mike Leigh, such as Secrets and Lies (1996), Life is Sweet (1990), and Hard Truths (2024), come to mind as good references to what we want the style to achieve—a quaint family drama to contrast with the wonders and horrors of Mike’s visions. Inspired by Leigh, we would like to explore improvisation between the actors of Layla and Mike, using the script as a starting point to create more emotionally raw scenes.
Past Screenings
Wed 3rd June, Everyman Cinema Plymouth, Devon, from 08:30pm. Get your tickets here.
Sun 5th July, The MAC, Belfast, Northern Ireland, from 1pm. Get your tickets here.
Wed 8th July, The MET, Bury, Greater Manchester, from 7pm. Get your tickets here.
Thu 27th Aug, Symposium Hall (Edinburgh Fringe / Nightpiece Festival), from 11:15pm. Get your tickets here.
Fri 18th Sept, Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), Birmingham, from 4pm. Get your tickets here.
Directed, Produced & Edited by Daniel Howard-Baker
Director of Photography and Post-Producing by Louis Holder
Starring Ray Redmond, Drew Lucia
Dancers Caitlin Gibbeson, Christopher Hodkinson & Elle Hood
Choreographer Chloe Fear & Fearless Collective
Steadycam / B-Cam Sam Cox (Novel Visuals)
Camera Assistants Sam Cox (Novel Visuals), Steve Todd
Sound Recordists Sam McLoughlin, Harry Houlberg, Steve Todd
Hair & Makeup Artist Cristie Bowcher-Ryce
Production Assistants Harry Houlberg, Steve Todd, Bess Howard-Baker
Location Manager Rachel McGowan
Sound Designer and Mixer (5.1) Isabell Derr
Colourist Zain Haris
For queries or screening requests please contact:
callingyoufilm@gmail.com
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