Elegy – A Visual Poem of the Long Dark is a short film directed by Jared Pelletier with narration by Christopher Plummer. It focuses on a post apocalyptic setting and explores the idea of identity and how it is shaped by situations of struggle. The film does not settle on simply one character, but covers the suffering of many. Through the use of sensory images and sounds, it creates an evocative environment of self-reflection.
"What I am living for and what I am dying for are the same question." Elegy uses a quote by famous author Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale) in the opening to set up this edgy journey of discovery. The quote itself implies that there is a cyclic quality to death and life. Therefore, purpose is monumental to a person's sense of who they are.
Historically, an elegy was a poem or song that expressed remorse. It would sometimes be a lament for the dead. This title keeps closely with that concept because the film laments the part of ourselves we have to shed in order to move on and become who we're supposed to be. It is all about endurance and how that endurance…show more content… For example, there are scenes with human characters crying and bearing injuries from the cold weather conditions. Those moments are blended with close ups of the trees covered in snow and of ice cracking. There is also a beauty to the scenes showing chaos. Scenes like the shot of the room that has been wrecked and the person walking out of it, the vivid sound of the gun shot, the very sudden lighting of the match, fingers skimming over the piano keys, the car lights flickering on in the snow and so on, leak into one another to show how this state of anguish is continuous. There is no clear ending or beginning to it. The characters are simply stuck in the middle of this long
