Mia

Logline - Mia awakens, locked in her apartment. Unbeknownst to her, she is already dead, trapped in Limbo. She must recollect her memories and discover how she died to move on and escape, but can she let go of the past?

 Mia

Mia awakens on the floor of her flat with no memory to the sound of the answer machine message and phone ringing. Peeling herself from the floor, her body heavy, she forces herself into the living room to find the source of ringing. Alone, Isolated and confused, a path seems to appear before her through the opening and closing of doors and little clues in the apartment. Though these little clues, her memories start to flood back, each time the force of them hits her, she again awakens on the floor. Mia realises that she has committed suicide, and continues to search for clues hoping the reason becomes clear. As she uncovers her memories, she suddenly sees the death of her son through her bedroom door. She tries to reach him however the door slams in her face, locking her out. Mia then realises she is trapped. As she faces this truth the bathroom door opens and reveals her son Danny in the mirror, but behind her is the echo of herself grieving her despair. Mia must let go of her grief and face the pain to move on and be with her son, or face the endless repetitive cycle of purgatory and self-destruction.

Through the repetition of repeated events such as Mia waking up and the walking to and from different doorways, it was our intention to express her confusion, isolation and the infinite loop of purgatory. Every time a new memory was presented, as if a puzzle piece, Mia would re-awaken again. As if starting again but with new information. Though the walking to and from rooms was tedious, it was necessary to represent visually as this confirmed her feelings of isolation and imprisonment within limbo. The symbolic nature of the doors closing and being locked was representations of what her mind had mentally blocked from her. At the beginning Mia is empty of memories like a shell, and must slowly recollect them, but any rush would result in psychological trauma and so each piece of her puzzle would slowly have to be fit into place.

In producing this film as a non-linear format we were able to reflect to the audience Mia’s confusion, and that they would learn about her as she was learning about herself. Though this film is slow paced by nature, it builds to a climactic end where both Mia and the audience finds out information about her past at the same time. Through other repeated events like the phone ringing and answer machine, more information is slowly becoming apparent to the audience and Mia as if layers are being peeled to reveal what lies beneath.

If this film were created as a linear narrative the result would be much different as the story would unfold quite easily like a drama, but while produced in a non-linear way really reflects the character Mia’s confusion and isolation, allowing the audience to really empathise with Mia.