Trapped By Myself

A 29-year-old office worker with dissociative identity disorder, is forced to face his inner demons when his other personality attempts to destroy the life he has made for himself.

  • Gilbert Carrey
    Director
  • Gilbert Carrey
    Writer
  • Eugene Odame
    Producer
  • Jay Garbrah
    Key Cast
    "Kwadwo/ Kwaku"
  • Anna-Maria Zarbo
    Key Cast
    "Afia"
  • Reginald Ankrah
    Key Cast
    "Mr Dankwa"
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Psychological Thriller, Drama
  • Runtime:
    8 minutes 57 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 26, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    216 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Ghana
  • Country of Filming:
    Ghana
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    3:2
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - National Film and Television Institute
  • Ghana Cinema Week
    Accra
    Ghana
    December 16, 2023
    Ghanaian Premiere
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Gilbert Carrey

Gilbert was born on the 15th of January, 2000. As a child, Gilbert started speaking at 10 months. Guess that was because he was born to tell stories. He took an interest in news and was mostly seen between 5am and 6am at the hall, listening to BBC on television.
At the age of 3, Gilbert started exhibiting his creative nature by telling and writing stories. At that time, he did not know how to draw so his big brother, who was very good with drawing, would usually draw the characters to match his story. During break time in school, their mates and other school children, would pay them some money to read the story. This continued until their mother was called by the school authorities because her children were trading in the school which was illegal.
Then he diverted his attention to watching cartoons and movies. The amazing thing here was that, after a movie or cartoon series ended, Gilbert was fast to continue the movie in his own way and give different situations that could have happened in the movie. This was when he was around 4 years. He was always telling stories and always exaggerating real life situations that happened.
Although he was doing all this, it wasn’t until he was 9 years old when he started writing his first novel (which is unpublished) that his mother realised that Gilbert had that creative gem in him. By the age of 11, he had written 5 movie stories, 6 comic series, and a novel. Fast forward to age 24, Gilbert has over 600 story ideas, comprising novels, poems, comics, series and movies. It is worth noting that, while all this was going on, Gilbert excelled in school as well and his best subjects were biology and computer science.
Gilbert started his education at One Love Nursery School in Tema and continued at Tema Parents Association School. He later moved to Angels Specialist School for class 4 to JHS 2. He finally went to Tema International School for his ICGSE and IB education.
In 2016 Gilbert and his mother set up GRC Concepts, a media organization to help in producing and promoting his works. Gilbert aims to drive GRC Concepts to the apex of entertainment and media production globally.
In 2017, Gilbert premiered his first film The Slave King at the Silverbird Cinemas which received a lot of buzz and praise. In the 4 years that followed, Gilbert went off the grid as he completed his International Baccalaureate Diploma program at TIS in 2018. In 2019, he began his Bachelor degree in Film Directing at the then National Film and television Institute (NAFTI) but he returned to filming in 2022 with the premiere of his first Television serial – Coffee Shop.
Coffee Shop’s first season ended in February 2023, after which Gilbert focused on completing his final year at NAFTI, filming his final student film, “Trapped by Myself”. After graduating with a first-class Bachelor’s degree in Film Directing, Gilbert worked as a writer at the advertising agency, Ogilvy Africa, from November 2023 until November 2024. Now he has returned to producing films with GRC Concepts and freelancing.

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Director Statement

I have always been a fan of surreal films or at least films that blend reality with the fantastical or downright unbelievable. When conceptualizing the story for my final year short film, I had made up my mind to tell a story that would not only be interesting to watch but to make a film that would recontextualize the viewer’s understanding upon a second viewing. In order to make this film truly great, and make it one I would always love to watch I decided to revisit an earlier student film I made in film school – “Two Sides of the Same Coin”
“Two Sides of the Same Coin” is a very short film I shot in my third year of film school. It was the first film I directed and it was where I began developing my style of film directing. In the story, which I did not write, the protagonist faced an internal battle between her positive and negative self and that idea sent me back to my physics classes. I decided to treat the characters as wires in a circuit and tell a story of a mind failing because it was out of sync. This gave me the idea for “Trapped by Myself” but rather than looking at the body as circuitry, I decided to tell a story that answers the two desires I started with by infusing a field of study I occasionally read on when I find some free time – Psychology.
Psychology has been of interest to me since my adolescence, although I never got the chance to properly delve into it. At the time of my conceptualization of “Trapped by Myself”, I had become mildly conversant with the psychology of Carl Jung. Ironically, it was through a different entertainment medium – A video game named Persona 5. Jung’s idea of “The Self”, “The Shadow” and “The Persona” in particular stood out to me as it spoke to a personal belief I had around the idea of having balance and acceptance of one’s identity, including the traits they found undesirable. At the point in time where I decided to lean into Jung’s psychology I had already decided that my message for the film would preach balance and facing one’s internalized demons. That was when the cogs started turning in my mind. I decided to tell a story of a person’s Shadow and Persona at war, creating a Self that was stagnant in life because he was at war with himself.
To this end, I decided to create a location set within the protagonist’s mind to serve as a dark prison where his shadow and persona keep trapping themselves and fighting for dominance. Additionally, I wanted an ambiguous urban setting that would still be Ghanaian but would also be relatable to a wider audience because the film’s message transcends borders. I decided to have the film end ambiguously, leaving the audience to determine what the story is telling them. This was my solution to creating a conclusion that recontextualizes the film with each viewing. By observing the characters more closely on each viewing, a different conclusion can be understood based on what clues are found.
The film was a labor of love but production was not easy on the minuscule budget of 216 USD (less than 3,000 Ghanaian Cedis) that I had to work with. Thankfully, I understood the limitations I had and took them into account when thinking of the necessary props, costumes and locations necessary. This film is very special to me because it is one that I saw in my head many times as I prepared to film it and now I can not only watch it unfold before my eyes, but I can share it with others and I hope that they will enjoy it and find the minute details the crew and I left in to help them understand the subtext within the scenes.