FOR I AM DEAD

For I Am Dead is a surreal drama short film by Patricia Delso Lucas. It is set in late-1800s Europe and follows Oscar, a lonely middle-aged man who has lived a decadent and superficial lifestyle in a château with wine, courtesans, and opium, before confessing his love to his gardener, Jude. From the very beginning of this short film, one can appreciate the highly skilled cinematography of Dominika Podczaska. The camera movement and the choice of frames convey a strong sense of hedonism, which is typical of Oscar’s life. By moving the camera among the actors and focusing on their performances, this short film makes a powerful visual impact. Desaturating the colors of the cinematography to convey the end of Oscar’s life is coherent with the story being told and allows the audience to be involved from the beginning. In addition to the great performances of the actors, we must emphasize how well the director selected them. In particular, Al Nazemian as Oscar and Laura Lahera as Mother are very intense and believable. Furthermore, the costumes give the actors the ability to reflect the mood of the historical period in which the short film takes place. The costumes, designed by Miguel Peñaranda Olmeda, are so elaborate that the film does not feel like a short film. There are two other important elements in this short film: sound design and editing. The rhythm of the editing by the director herself, together with the sound design by David Ferral, helps to convey the emotional journey of the actors. All of these factors contribute to making this a very good film. Therefore, congratulations to the director, writer, and producer Patricia Delso Lucas. The independent screenwriter, film director, and cinematographer earned her MFA in Film Directing from the Skillset Screen Academy in Scotland. Originally from Madrid, Spain, she now lives in Brussels, Belgium. In 2010, she was nominated for a BAFTA Scotland New Talent Award for her graduation work. She then took part in various international workshops focused on directing narrative films at NYU, Sundance Shorts Lab, Prague Film School, London Film School, and Maine Media Workshops. Additionally, she studied cinematography at the Global Cinematography Institute in Los Angeles. From narrative drama to dark comedy, from audiovisual poetry to documentaries, her work spans a variety of genres. Her stories tend toward a character-driven approach, and the audiovisual worlds she creates around them often have a thin line between reality and the surreal. During the April competition of the Berlin Indie Film Festival, For I Am Dead won three awards: Best Sound Design, Best Cinematography, and Best Actor.