Adira's Dream

A first date becomes a torment of past and present relationships. Set in a quirky west London restaurant, millennials Adira and Dan sit down to their first date together. Despite matching on a dating app, on the first impression, photographer Dan does not fit Adira's archetype. After an awkward first course, screenwriter Adira explains her struggles with writer's block, Dan suggests she write a screenplay of her own life. Awkward silences at the dining table transport us to intimate moments with Adira in her flat. We see her struggles with depression and loneliness. A dark figure follows Adira like a shadow through London streets. Gushing streams moving upward through a Nordic valley take us deep into Adira's sub-consciousness. Moving through various dream-like states reality becomes uncertain. Adira is writing, we hear the typewriter violently tapping, is she changing the course of events? Back at the restaurant, Dan has become visibly distressed. His character viscous. This is life through a social media lens, a fifty-word limit, and endless filters - until a violent encounter brings reality crashing down. —Kat Kemsley