"Death Of A Shadow" by Tom Van Avermaet

"Murder is always expressive"

"Death Of A Shadow", originally titled "Dood Van Een Shaduw" is a French-Belgian production written and directed by Tom Van Avermaet, who is not only a film-maker but also a story teller. However he has not directed a feature film yet, but he has stated to be willing to adapt the comic book series "The Sandman" by Neil Gaiman.

This director has accepted to be inspired by painters such as the Spanish Salvador Dalí or film-makers as Tim Burton or Guillermo del Toro.

The short film, with an approximate running time of twenty minutes, tells the story of Rijckx, a former World War I soldier who falls in love with a young woman, but he will have to catch shadows of people to be able to live. Actually, in his world he can only see shadows, but not the owners of those shadows. That is why he uses a special gadget similar to a camera. All the shadows are collected as artworks in a huge gallery.

In general terms, this short film is a surreal story of a world where fantasy and reality are not easily differenced.

All in all, there are three main subjects in the story, which are love, death and shadows.

The film stars Matthias Schoenaerts as Rijckx, Peter Van Den Eede as the opposing, Laura Verlinden as Sarah and Benjamin Ramon.

Matthias Schoenaerts as Rijckx

Regarding the cinematography, there is a great work done by the technical team. There are two main colours that detach in the image track, which are orangish yellow and blue. They are opposite colour, so they could be interpreted as a contradiction or a conflict; it could be the conflict between life and death or light and shadows, for instance.

After watching the short film, it is evident that there is a great production work behind it is a period film and it includes very special elements that may not be easy to get. For example, there are many gadgets and machines, and all of them are incredibly developed. Actually the director has declared that they have been working for five years to reach the end.

As a compensation for this outstanding work, it has received a nomination at the Oscars in 2013 in the category of Life Action Short.It has also received other important prizes.

This is the "Death Of A Shadow" official trailer:

"When a shadow disappears, another one must be replaced" Death Of A Shadow