The After

A man's world is shattered after a devastating incident.

 

It is a nice day in London and Dayo (Oyelowo), a man who holds a high-profile financial position, is with his young daughter Laura (Dokubo), on their way to meet her mother (Plummer). All is looking wonderful, until out of the blue, a terrible incident occurs.

 

In his first short film, photographer Misan Harriman tells a moving story about a man who loses everything and becomes a changed person. Prior to the fateful event, Dayo was a happy family man, who pushed work aside in order to spend time with his loved ones. Now, he has become a quiet loner, having lost the will to remain connected with people who are concerned about his well-being, including friends and social workers. One way the film explores his current life is with a series of scenes of various of his passengers, each having its own atmosphere, whether it involves a father being proud of his son, an emergency, a loss or an argument. By listening to his passengers, Dayo seems to repeatedly be reminded of everything he has lost.

 

As the main character, Oyelowo plays a man who is broken by grief, an individual who goes from happy to torn apart and does not know how to carry on with his life and Oyelowo delivers a powerful performance, which adds significant value to the film.

 

Now to the technical aspects, there are some fantastic establishing shots that benefit greatly by Si Bell's cinematography and the fillmakers are creative with the sound, during scenes where voices sink in the background. Regarding the soundtrack, Francesco Le Metre develops music that includes sentimental piano melodies and the song Let It All Go by Birdy and Rhodes was an excellent choice.

 

Unsurprisingly, this film won the Best Live Action Short at the Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival. It is an emotional and hard-hitting drama with superb acting and great character development and it explores psychological deterioration due to the effects of loss and grief. Viewers will most likely find the story intriguing and be moved by the ending.