Starborn

Bursting at the seams with powerful imagery, evocative music and an ethereal narration, filmmaker Starry Venus’s 90-second short film Starborn is an arresting piece of cinema. With the goal of creating an immersive cinematic experience, Venus ensures audiences are challenged on multiple fronts by a quickfire story that contains deep thematic ponderings.

The synopsis of the film sees a forgotten goddess (Andrew Wright) wandering the desert in what appears to be a void bereft of life and hope. It quickly becomes clear, however, that she’s not alone and that there are others in this world to connect to.

Whilst being short on plot, Starborn has the benefit of being a piece of cinema that’s open to multiple layers of interpretation. The inclusion of a goddess on Earth immediately secures a challenge to the viewer’s faith - where do they stand on such aspects of their own life, and how do they interpret the character that is being shown? The narration includes numerous intriguing phrases and words that may be triggering to an audience, such as “grief” or “pulled me back from the brink”. And the coalescing of elements within the filmmaking - sound, dialogue, connection between characters - creates a sensory conclusion befitting of such an artistic piece.

The short film utilises the setting really well. The desert is a staple of American cinema, providing not just dramatic scenery but also evoking a sense of isolation and anonymity, which is crucial with this story of a wandering goddess. The desert has also symbolised a new frontier in both American history and cinema (i.e. Westerns) where it is possible for a “rebirth” to take place for a character or civilisation, which again links brilliantly to the plot here if you consider the idea of being “pulled back from the brink”. There are also connotations of “survival” at play here, with some stark imagery in the opening of the piece which take place against the harsh desert backdrop.

As with any piece of artistic cinema, the effect on the audience is going to vary massively. We aren’t dealing with a slot A into slot B structure here and it is unlikely a 90-second short film is going to secure a wide, mainstream audience. Which is not the point of Starborn at all, it feels more elevated than that. It’s an immersive experience that, should you be lucky enough to stumble upon it, perhaps at a film festival, you will likely fall under its cosmic spell (if only for a short time), where you might ponder the entirety of existence.

Watch my Video Film Review of Starborn on TikTok.