Dreams of Reality

The film industry has an extremely important part to play in our modern society, and therefore a lot of responsibility rests on the shoulders of its filmmakers as they are able to significantly influence their audience’s mental state with their work.

The human mind has the unique capacity to learn through stories, which is very advantageous since attention can be drawn to character virtues and deficits without having to directly confront specific individuals. The poets of the past often conveyed political criticism carefully woven into intricate plotlines, which were then performed on stage, and old legends and fairytales likely survived the centuries because of their meaning on a communal and a personal level displaying timeless morals. Also the ancient scriptures of the Bible reveal a big portion of the gospel message through parables.
I have come to realize that my favourite films actually adhere to biblical principles in some way, shape, or form, as for example “The Lord of the Rings”, “The Matrix”, “The Maze Runner”, “The Hunger Games” or “The Divergent”, just to name a few, and in fact it is due to some of those masterpieces that I followed through with the process of making “Dreams of Reality”, which went hand in hand with the continual growth of my Christian faith.
Whatever resonates with our peculiar personalities, whether there is an innate belief or curiosity in us for the supernatural, or whether we turn to medical and physical findings for answers to explain the world, or to psychology, philosophy, theology or any other social science, all these different educational branches try to depict truth in their own way, which leads them to also reach similar conclusions. According to the Bible miracles manifest by faith, in my pedagogical education I analogously learnt about the concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy, which also relies on the forces of the mind and is comparable to the law of attraction in related disciplines, as an artist I am familiar with the famous Picasso quote “Everything you can imagine is real.” and experiments in quantum physics have proven that we can change the electromagnetic field around us with our thoughts and emotions until our spiritual focus manifests in the material realm, which I find to be beautifully explained in further detail in the film “What the Bleep Do We Know!?”. So stating a widely accepted fact that humans have been given the ability to shape their reality in extraordinary ways, the question arises what our ideal reality should look like.
Our current system is a very complex man-made structure, but it is not without flaws, which has become more and more obvious in recent years by the increasing discontent of its population. Since values of self-interest tend to be the guiding theme in these predominantly competitive, high-pressure conditions, social injustice is growing and mother nature is exploited, whilst stereotypical ways of thinking are promoted in order to keep us all integrated in the ruthless wheel of mass-production and financial gain. As a consequence people’s self-image can suffer, and therefore they oftentimes turn towards specific measures to ease their pain. Substance abuse is the obvious one, but there are the drugs that are a lot more socially acceptable yet equally dangerous, such as entertainment of all kinds, workaholic tendencies, excessive shopping and unnatural ways of improving outward appearances, which I have personally struggled with as well. An aggravating factor is that our modern society has become very digitalized and automated, which further fosters isolation and leads the masses to slowly mutate into calculating machines themselves robotically tending to their everyday duties, so they can live up to a lifeless doctrine.
Arguing from a Christian point of view, humans are made in the image of God and are therefore small creators who have been given authority to rule the earth. Yet in order for them to be successful with this, they need to operate within a divine framework, otherwise the power structures they create will not last, as history has clearly shown numerous times. The Bible provides a set of instructions for different situations of social interaction with Jesus’ core teaching boiling down to the love message. So since we are all connected with each other and with everything in a natural symbiosis, the ultimate goal is to achieve a healthy balance of coexistence through respect and gratitude for everything in creation, including and actually most importantly for our almighty Creator Himself, who holds the universe together in its entirety.
Considering the current status quo, this ideal concept rather looks like a utopia than a reality, but fact is that many people dreaming the same dream can indeed make it come true. It requires just enough individuals reaching the point of realization that our system doesn’t serve us anymore as it should and that we live in a deceptive construct of our minds which doesn’t hold up with the higher truth of fundamental principles because if it did, we would certainly experience more joy and peace.
The inspiration for the psychological thriller “Dreams of Reality” came when I took some time out in Australia as a backpacker after my studies. My then-boyfriend introduced me to some of the short stories he had written, and I right away connected with the sociocritical plot of “Sand and Wax”, which was also well received when published online.
Stimulated by its vivid language, I was looking to convey a clean, visually perfect scenery with vibrant, bright colours and a seemingly idyllic flair with a special emphasis on the exhibition of wealth, which is also reflected in the inserted excerpt of the Madonna song “Material Girl” that associates this mindset with the oftentimes corresponding aspect of self-idolatry. A lot of thought and experimentation went into creating a surreal atmosphere with a variety of visual effects, foley sounds and musical beds, whilst the whole process of making this film from the first spark to its final details spun a little more than a decade on and off. As I also changed my countries of residence during that time and generally travelled a lot, this project can be regarded a multinational effort with preproduction and production in Australia and postproduction in the UK, Germany and the French part of Switzerland.
Understandably I faced big challenges throughout my approach as well, which caused me several times to nearly give up on the idea of ever finishing this movie according to my vision, but my faith in its message made me persevere, and with me having felt very much predestined for this task by continually having witnessed the divine supply of all the necessary resources against all odds, I was encouraged all the more. In order to be able to follow my calling for this and other creative projects, I used to work mainly as a part-time nanny and therefore I never had any noteworthy monetary resources, which is why I also couldn’t financially compensate anyone involved in “Dreams of Reality” for their time, expertise and equipment. In the retrospective it really is quite mind-boggling to think about how this level of production quality could be achieved on a close to zero budget. Besides, I had never been to film school or taken any classes on filmmaking, neither am I technology-savvy enough in the natural to do some of the parts that were left for me to do, so whilst I certainly made use of all the means available to me to the best of my ability, some instances were indeed of a rather miraculous nature, in my opinion.
Considering how much my artistic fulfillment as well as my personal development were aided by the spiritual guidance I received, I can only confirm from my experience that “with God all things are possible”, according to Matthew 19:26 in Scripture. Therefore I also believe on a bigger scale that our broken world can encounter healing in the same way if there is a willingness for it as a collective. One of the main reasons why I have decided to play the role of Lea myself is in order to bring this point across since her story is constructed to be very similar to my own. On that note I unfortunately can’t state that doubt never befalls me when opposition presents itself, but a crisis can be a point of awakening and a great opportunity for a change of direction or further growth. Faith allows us to look positively into the future because we can rest assured that the end of a situation is the door to a new beginning. Life and death are the Alpha and the Omega of creation, and God is part of both, which eliminates fear and gives peace instead, no matter what comes.

I hope the idea behind this film finds a way to its audience and is a blessing for everyone who can identify with it.