“Nyctophilia” by Bahadir Karasu

The relationship with darkness is one of our most rooted feelings. Since we are children we think about darkness as something to both fear and love: fear because, in our mind, it is haunted; love because we can’t help but feel a certain kind of fascination towards it.

“Nyctophilia”, the title of this short movie, means love for darkness. It makes us think about an almost irresistible feeling of self-destruction, at the top of frustration. The protagonist of this short, Amos, has everything a man can desire: love, lavish cars, a well paid job, and is estimated by everybody. He is accused of the murder of his wife and can pay the best lawyers in town, but he accepts all charges, at the top of a masochist impetus.

Framed by a dark thriller cinematography depicting the character’s inner struggle and directed with emphasis and with a lot of strong musical choices, Nyctophilia has a style that tries to make the spectator feel and experience the plot with a stronger, almost uncontrollable emotion, as to mimic Amos’ rage, darkness and frustration.

Even if the short is low budget, we can still find some very good ideas of staging and a peculiar care for colors and atmosphere that make us feel trapped in Amos’ paranoia: we feel like it is very hard to reason and to find an inner peace as the editing and the rhythm of the story won’t let us have a second to pause and think.

The ending looks inevitable, as we slide with the leading actor down the abyss that we start to love. This director is able to stage good, compelling stories even without the budget they would normally leave. This film is a descent into the darkness of the human soul.