By Lethe Betrayed

The genesis of the By Lethe Betrayed came from a stray thought: what effects would Alzheimer’s have on repressed memories? Dementia is such an insidious disease, affecting memory and identity in a profound way, so what would happen if it re-awakened hidden secrets? How would you be able to deal with those memories resurfacing? And how does it affect your loved ones? With this film I want to explore how memory shapes our identity and how mental problems can reshape it.

The title is a poetic reference to Lethe, Greek goddess and river of oblivion and forgetfulness, whose waters one drinks after death to forget one’s mortal existence. Alzheimer's is in a way a betrayal of the natural order of things, forgetting your life before your time. And for Esmeralda, the resurfacing of memories purposely buried is yet another betrayal by Lethe, with painful ramifications.

By Lethe Betrayed also explores sexual identity. What do you sacrifice by accepting your sexuality and what do you sacrifice by denying it? Before heading off into the thriller aspect of the story, By Lethe Betrayed explores in Robin, mostly through subtext, the social isolation that single gays can feel. But there is also Harold’s deep, dark secret that has for years gnawed at him – and his marriage...

The film’s cinematography comes from a desire to tell a story with a new way of visualising the mental states of characters. The camera darts in and out of the characters’ perspectives, sometimes embodying the divine, with the use of line art to represent characters’ subjective memories. The sound of synapses firing and misfiring, as well as the haunting music, for me complement the amazingly poignant performances of the cast, hopefully making this a film to remember.