On The Corner Of Nowhere

It is the Wild West and a tormented outlaw takes refuge inside a church.

This short drama was adapted from the full-length screenplay of the same name with the intention of leading to a feature-length film.

With his directorial debut, O'Toole brings to life a short story filled with dramatic dialogue, religion, ruthlessness and self-judgement. This project was filmed inside a church in London, which is amazing considering although the entire narrative takes place inside a church, it convincingly brings the viewer to the Western United States during the time of the Wild West thanks to the clothing, the plot, the accents and the music.

Proceeding now to analyse these four elements, the plot would be a good choice to begin with. An unknown man (Kelson) is in a church with a priest (Mbeka) and a youth named Lucas (Abraham). The priest and Lucas brought the stranger to the building after they found him injured in the woods. Until now, he has been helping with maintenance of the church and keeping a low profile. Although he is rather reclusive and negative, he has build a sort-of rapport with his two rescuers. Lucas looks up to him, naively seeing him as a bigshot gunslinger, while the priest tries to bring out the good in him. The troubled man is stubborn, being a pessimist with a dark past, a person who does not believe in religion and that the world is a cruel place. Soon, trouble arrives in the form of bandits, leading to fist fights and life-threatening situations.

Moving now to the clothing and the mise-en-scene in general, as mentioned the story takes place in the interior of the church, so there are no desert landscapes, small towns or ranches or horses for that matter, instead it is the costumes that works as the visual element related to the Wild West and commendations go to costume designer Madeleine Haddock. Speaking of visuals, praise also goes to Lyo Yuson for the wonderful work on the moody cinematography.

Regarding the audio now, the Southern accents are quite convincing and the tense music by Fred Newnham sounds like it belongs in a Western and so does the song during the closing credits.

O'Toole also worked on the editing and his creative work with dissolve and superimposition is to be acknowledged.

This is the dark and dramatic story about a damaged man who is struggling to understand himself and find redemption. It is a tense, dark and intriguing story that gains a great deal from Kelson's magnificent performance and the dramatic screenplay. Taking under consideration that this short is intended to lead to a feature film, hopefully, that will come to be.