The Light Keeper

Tamas Levardi decided to make a short film without much planning. The result is a dynamic and fast experience with a duration of three minutes and twenty seconds.

In this case, spoken words exist only in the form of voice-over and there is not much of a story to follow, which is not a bad thing. The film is heavily edited, constantly cutting back and forth in time, with each shot lasting a few seconds maximum.

There is only one person present and that is a young woman (Berton) and the viewer follows her as she traverses a number of locations that are either on civilisation grounds or in the countryside. The plot point appears to be when she discovers a photographic camera inside an abandoned building. Up until that point, the scenes seem to take place in chronological order and it is after that when the narrative turns non-linear and keeps alternating rapidly between scenes that show the unnamed woman utilising the camera to take pictures on fields or inside a church or being inside a darkroom, developing her photographs.

What is the plot? The events seem to show that finding the camera ignited a spark in the woman's life and she now constantly uses the device in order to view and understand the world through other perspectives. However, in numerous shots she appears to be upset, distressed and frustrated, maybe even angry as she is seen screaming. She gives the impression that she is desperate to achieve something, maybe to discover something. This is what could be interpreted by looking at the visuals.

The voice-over was done by Elizabeth Nightingale and her words help understand the story further. The sound of her voice is almost a constant whisper and she talks about being a lost person, about her perspectives regarding life and that some sort of event helped her find her path.

Filming was done by using natural lighting almost entirely and the film is beautifully shot with a handheld camera and Levardi takes great advantage of sunrises and sunsets to create terrific visuals.

The fast cutting editing makes a tense experience, however it would not be as thrilling without the dynamic score by Michele Masin that becomes more and more powerful as the film progresses.

This film could be viewed as a montage or maybe a trailer. It is certainly a captivating piece of work that stands out thanks to the creativity regarding the directing and editing, the powerful music and Beton's performance, which is impressive considering that she reportedly did not have professional acting experience when she worked on this project.