Experiencing Interruptions?

Lifeline

Max suffers chronic anxiety and disturbed sleep, triggered by voices in his head and a constant phone call from his absent wife, Saima. As personal and work pressures increase, so does Max's pill intake and an overdose becomes likely.

  • Gee Sahota
    Director
  • Gee Sahota
    Writer
    Hush Little Baby, Butterflies
  • Gee Sahota
    Producer
    Hush Little Baby, Butterflies
  • James Heatlie
    Key Cast
    "Max"
    Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins, The Killer Beside Me, In Retrospect, Gemini, North, Edinburgh Blue, Batmin Begins
  • Lee Wilkinson
    Key Cast
    "Duncan"
    The 355, Absent Year, Hard Hitting
  • Gee Sahota
    Key Cast
    "Saima"
    Hush Little Baby
  • Asad Mahmud
    Co-Producer
    Hush Little Baby, Butterflies, Dark town
  • Kamil Iwanowicz
    Director of Photography
    Mama's Watching, The Invisible Boy, Dona & Vixen, The Seething, Nora, Sticks, Puragtorium, Death & Penelope, Dancing Day, Popek Monster
  • Gee Sahota
    Editor
  • Tito Mazzetti
    Composer
  • Kerem Isik
    Sound Designer
    There's No Happy Ending
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    11 minutes 15 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 1, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    1,500 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital Sony Mark II 4K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Gee Sahota

Gee Sahota subscribes to telling stories that matter. Having shifted career from corporate finance, she has since been learning the craft assiduously. Lifeline is her third short and directorial debut which she also wrote, produced and edited.

"A Woman’s Voice”, her latest short is in the script development phase and aims to promote her feature length of the same name. It's one of 3 screenplays, which spans over the last 15 years and is loosely inspired by real life events.

Her main themes focus on female empowerment and mental health - told in a style that's laced with magical realism.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

SPOILER ALERT: please watch movie before reading statement.

Writing about Mental Health doesn’t come from an unknown place. If I journey back to 2008, I’m transported to one of the toughest assaults on my mind, yet one that has revolutionised my existence. Within 100 days, I’d lost my father to terminal heart disease, a relationship and all my PR and marketing contracts to the recession.

It triggered phenomenon of hearing voices and seeing movie like images within my mind’s eye. Some would call it a mental breakdown, I call it a mental breakthrough of epic proportions which leans into ESP (extra sensory perception), and has paved the way forward for my film journey.

“Lifeline” is told through the lens of the protagonist Max. I chose a male lead, as men too often are taught by society to shut down their emotions and display a tough macho image to prove their worth. He’s part inspired by the torment of an ex-partner who worked in the intense and merciless world of finance and was reliant on prescription pills, combined with my own auditory and visual experiences. Needless to say, soundscape is a crucial component and is perhaps my favourite part of the film.

While many films depict mental health as per the mainstream rhetoric, and it’s clear Max is in crisis, it was important to me to feed through the possibility that Max could also be having an ESP experience.

In fact, as is shared in the end note of the short, hearing voices (and having visions) is a lot more common than we think and not always related to mental illness. Famous people such as Carl Jung, Anthony Hopkins, Zoe Wannamaker, Vinny Jones and many more have admitted to hearing voices.