The Corridor

The writer-director James Mansell dives deep into the physic of the person with his intricate screenplay and Ashley Pekri understands his nuances and performs so efficiently to convince the viewers and thus increase the degree of audience engagement with the content.

The plot of The Corridor revolves around an endless corridor of locked doors that holds a male prisoner as his mind begins to slowly disintegrate.

The film opens with a black screen and the makers have brilliantly integrated the narration and animation to provide the audience with a visual representation of the subject matter the movie wants to shed light upon. The combination of black, white, and grey colours, set design, dim lighting, sound, dialogues, and the character sketch complements the gloomy and depressing mood of the film-The Corridor to add a sense of realism and relatability into the minds of the viewers so that they learn from it. The shaky and shivering camera work helps the creative team to highlight the fears and insecurities of the male protagonist and glimmer in the eyes of the prisoner when thinking about his lady love (Victoria Morrison) is the only source of hope when it comes to any chances of survival while combating the tough situations he is faced with daily.

In terms of performance, Ashley Pekri plays the prisoner who has been living behind locked doors for years and he doesn’t know the reason why he ended up here in the first place. Pekri portrays the range of diverse emotions the man in confinement feels with every passing second. The voice modulation, body language, and eyes communicate the helplessness and mundane lifestyle he is forced to lead and also help deliver the key messages essential for the audience to continuously evolve as ardent viewers of cinema.

Victoria Morrison plays the role of the man’s lover who is a sweet beautiful woman and the memory of whom stays with him at all times. Even though the screen time for Morrison is very limited she manages to leave an impact on the audience and also smooth movement of the narrative.

The corridor draws a clear demarcation to explain the difference between being alone and loneliness and what can be the long-term effect of compulsory confinement on the minds of the prisoners. The short film reiterates the importance of love, hope, and memories in life so much so that it can provide the strength to move ahead in the most testing times too. The dramatic piece highlights the importance of any kind of human contact and other social elements to lead a normal healthy life.

To conclude, I would like to appreciate the efforts of James Mansell and his team for attempting to depict such a sensitive subject matter by utilising the art of animation and successfully delivering the key messages to the audience.