Sarah (en)

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Note of intent

When I was 15-years-old, I had a first glance of a beloved person mental illness. As I accompanied her through her process, I questioned society’s role towards this sort of condition. As they become responsible for the well-being of their loved one, family members are forced to work and sometimes silence the emotional pain of watching their loved one mentally decomposing. With Cristian Mungiu and Asghar Farhadi as narrative referents, I want to create an emotional piece that accounts for the bitter-sweet reality that, as mine, many families undergo.

Synopsis

14-year-old Sarah lives alone with her mother, Julie ,37, in Puerto Rico. Aspiring to get into Julliard School of Art, she practices piano intensively. Her life is suddenly disturbed when Julie starts to show signs of mental instability. An increasing sense of persecution keeps Julie up at night, while Sarah stays up watching her mother’s personality vanish. Unable to manage the situation, Sarah’s concentration starts to become affected, along with her future at Julliard. Strongly refusing to hospitalize Julie, Sarah takes care of her mother. As she turns 15, she finds herself alone and with all her time taken up. Her impossibility to practice leads to her failure at the long-awaited audition to Julliard. Desperate and frustrated, Sarah confronts Julie forcing her into a mental facility. Soon regretting her action, Sarah must face her decision and confront her mother’s absence.

Visual concept

The characters are developed through long scenes full of realistic sounds and dialogues with little camera movement, inspired by John Cassavetes. As a contrast, I will explore scenes with little dialogue and subtle camera movements, inspired by Béla Tarr and Bresson. Sound will play a very important role in the emotional level: intimate dialogues, silences and incidental music themes that illustrate the characters emotional state. Both the photographic and sound experience will function in accordance with the construction and deconstruction of the main characters.