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Closure Cafe

Logline:
At a bar in the afterlife where years pass in minutes, a Soviet soldier must unravel his Afghan lover's betrayal before he can escape limbo.

Synopsis:
With his Ukrainian parents gone, Aleksandr finds not only a sense of family in the Soviet Army, but also love in 1983 when he falls for Tasneem, a local Afghan interpreter. But after a deathly betrayal, he stumbles into Closure Cafe, an eerie watering-hole for misfits from across the ages. The bullet wounds don’t hurt, but the memories do, and unless he finds answers soon, he will stay trapped there for all eternity, much like his mysterious bartender, Izumi. Can he ever learn to trust again, or can a lost soul never move on from a broken heart?

  • Tara Jenkins
    Director
    Lost and Found (2017), Timespace (2014), Suite Talk(2016)
  • Laurence Warner
    Director
    Taylor (2022)
  • Abhishek Pandit
    Writer
    The Cannons of Kalindi (2003)
  • Abhishek Pandit
    Producer
    The Cannons of Kalindi (2003)
  • Shreya Jhalani
    Key Cast
    "Tasneem Niazai Khan"
    Hollywood Casting Confessions (2019), Angel Baby (2022), Blessed Be (2022)
  • Laurence Warner
    Key Cast
    "Captain Aleksandr Mikhailovich Pastukhov"
    Taylor(2022)
  • Rachanee Lumayno
    Key Cast
    "Haruki Izumi"
    Synesthesia (2016), Reclamation (2017), Ex Pat Podcast (2020)
  • Monique Gonsalves
    Key Cast
    "Charon Styx/ Karen Stickes"
    Airway(2021)
  • Ego Mikitas
    Key Cast
    "The Colonel"
    The OA (2019), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (2022), Blowback (2022)
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Historical, Fantasy
  • Runtime:
    16 minutes 5 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 15, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    2,083 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English, Russian, Ukrainian
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, 4K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.9:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Tara Jenkins, Laurence Warner

Tara Jenkins (Co-Director 1):
Originally from Phoenix, Tara moved to the LA area to attend Pepperdine University and never left. She is a graduate of USC School of Cinematic Arts, where she earned her MFA in Film Production.
Her work on the documentary "Spokespeople" won the 2021 First Look Award at USC for Outstanding Cinematography as well as Best Short Doc at the Rhode Island International Film Festival. These days, when she's not writing content for the American Society of Cinematographers, she freelances as a cinematographer and (plot twist!) FAA certified drone pilot.

Laurence Warner (Co-Director 2):
Born in a small town on England South Coast’s, with an uncanny ability to assume voices and characters, Warner became acquainted early with exploring duality. While his Oxford academics earned him a Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Chicago, Warner insisted on nurturing his creative side through innovative improv theatre & music which he brought back to his hometown, Eastleigh.
Now, audiences love his Beast-side— his outrageous rapper alter-ego on singer-songwriter albums he releases each summer. From hit YouTube music videos, Warner’s looking to work with writer Abhishek Pandit to level up his indie productions to short films and musicals, and get more comfortable presenting them and other indie artists’ works on the television screen.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

(written by Laurence Warner):

I initially got involved with this project based on a simple principle: right place, right time. When I escaped the English winter to perform my original music in L.A., I reconnected with my University of Chicago classmate, Abhishek Pandit, who joined me at open-mics. One of them resembled the ‘Closure Cafe’ he’d envisioned in his short-story that had just been published, so we said “how about we film that story instead?”

But we had no prior capital-F Film experience. And a limited budget. Pandit’s adapted screenplay demanded an unusually diverse cast (from Eastern-Europe to South & East Asia, and even Greek mythology!), while also compressing decades of Cold War history into a quarter of an hour. And we needed to wrap the shoot before the bar opened (within 5 hours), which most cinematographers deemed infeasible. The odds seemed stacked against us.

Fortunately, we ran into Tara Jenkins, who understood our focus was not on production-values but rather emotive-impact. Pandit’s story shows that in a world ridden with personal trauma and political conflicts, we can only find meaningful closure when we help others find theirs. So, despite our tiny set, we tried to steady the camera — and our nerves — as much as possible. Unfortunately, it ended up being the sound recording which let us down, namely malfunctioning lav mics.

But the world had bigger concerns: we were shocked by the sheer pace and intent of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the week after we filmed. We needed to push through this anti-war film more than ever. It was time to get creative. As well as hiring D’Var Baggett to rescue the camera audio in Post, we worked with three amazing talents personally impacted by Russian aggression to record a Prologue and Credits-music that would bookend the film more solidly within their history.

Why did we start this project? Because we could. Why didn’t we abandon it? Because we couldn’t. Closure Cafe reinforced my faith in the power of storytelling for shaping a better world. I found not only the right place and time, but also the right message. In fact, one of our actors became so inspired by her role that she defused a racist incident in her North Hollywood streets. We’re excited to hear from you about what difficult conversations this film can stir. Because regardless of culture, respectful dialogue is the first step to finding closure.