Shelter

As for my first short, I chose to go on a way that I love dearly, tales and symbolism. Berin and Alya are both young women who are in a camping environment. They have the nuances of complex relationships where they are both childlike and dangerous. For them, they know each other yet as the audience we are getting to know them, and the balance of their oppositions is important for me. This story is all about the toxicity and the faces of people, the psychology behind it, and the hidden knowledge between them as a fiction thriller. Following Berin, who is scared and trying to understand and maybe accept the relationship she has with Alya and trying to put up a confident and loving face. Their hidden personalities that are unrevealing to each other are feeding the other and making a structure that shows their unhealthy affection. Besides, their dynamics, the secret of their reason for being in the forest creates a mystery that cherishes the cat-and-mouse play that they perform and the timeline makes us think that is this the beginning or end?

The short has the muse on thrillers scary movies and real-life murderers, with the hint of fantastical fiction because of my personal favorites. The tales and the way to show their toxicity remind a Beauty and the Beast tale where the faces are pretty but the insides are just not it. The character “Alya” is a complexion of the film “Sick of Myself” where she lives by attention and when the circumstances are different turns into a coy, and the assassin from Killing Eve, with her charm and wit, and similar to Alya’s relationship with Berin; the persona she is, the reality of a character. Obviously, these characters are not based on fiction, but from unfortunate memories and places where the unhealthy environment is a size as big as a forest yet the feeling is so small and demeaning. So, the short is all about psychology and unclear riddles, and comes as a forgotten fairytale; something from my past and my childhood best friend's stories about the wolves that haunt me to this day.

Shelter is the word I decided to choose because it is a homonym. As the word has meaning like a place for pets, it also means to be protected from something and also to be in a place where most needed it; which all serves the story in some other way and supports the setting.

It is a cry for help that sometimes no matter what you do you will get hunted which Berin portrays and is never gonna be enough for Alya. The forest and the chasing for someone who is leaving consecutively is a chase where the cat-and-mouse play becomes a pathetic story, where the mouse chases the cat into a trap.

The story is based on abuse and a little girl’s captivation by a situation; which can be read with many opinions such as Alya’s realness, or Berin’s state of mind. Being in a decoy for the wolves is a poetic way to emphasize to the layers of knowing someone. The choice of the actors are harboring this too, their resemblance is the key for the short, Shelter.