Project Detail

The Time Before

Name: The Time Before
Director: Leo Metcalf
Genre: Docufiction, Drama, Experimental
Released: 2025
Duration: 15 min

Synopsis

Haunted by unanswered questions about himself, Olly journeys through his past. His story unfolds in two starkly contrasting realms: the raw simplicity of his childhood, captured in his own drawings, and the fluid, surreal world of his dreams. We glimpse the fractured memories of his early years: an abusive father, a mother lost in the haze of the past, and his sister Sally, a beacon who urged him to find escape and control within his own imagination, transforming nightmares into refuges from reality.
Official Selection Raindance Film Festival 2025 - World premiere
Official Selection Venice International Film Festival (Biennale Cinema) 2025 - International premiere

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Details

Year: 2025
Type of project: XR / Immersive
Running time: 15 min
Director: Leo Metcalf
Producer: Leo Metcalf
Screenwriter: Leo Metcalf
Director of Photography: Leo Metcalf
Sound: Harry J N Parsons
Composer: V.R. Alevizos
Principal cast: Anouk Lawless-Monnot; Simon Chambers; Bean Downes; Leo Metcalf
Other Lead Creative(s): Michael Golembewski (Lead Unity Developer)

Genre

Docufiction Drama Experimental

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

Leo Metcalf

Flat 16
Fellows Court
Weymouth Terrace
London
E2 8LP

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Olly sifts through his memories searching to understand why he is the way he is. The narrative swings between two contrasting worlds: his memories of his first years, captured by his childhood drawings, and surreal underwater live-action scenes representing his dreams. We witness fragmented memories of a torn family - an abusive father, a mother whose memory seems faded, and a sister, Sally, encouraging her little brother to escape through imagination and dreams. As memory and fantasy blur, The Time Before becomes a meditation on the stories we tell ourselves to survive, and what is lost in the telling. Official Selection Aesthetica Film Festival 2024

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