Director: Skyler Muller
Writer: Skyler Muller
Cast: Romy Naseri, Christel Peters
Running time: 7mins
When young Delilah (Romy Naseri) finds herself at one of life’s cross-roads, her mind begins to wander. In a desperate search for acceptance, her consciousness finds itself drifting between spiritual planes, and before she knows it, she is locked in an unnerving encounter with the goddess Gaia (Christel Peters), and a band of nymphs.
Once again, Skyler Muller has delved into ancient Greek mythology to explore contemporary matters of identity and inclusion. You may remember Icarus – reviewed roughly a year ago – in which the writer-director tapped into a forgotten or censored aspect of the story, to touch on LGBT+ life – and aspects of those stories which have been supressed or downplayed amid the prejudices and biases of modern society.
In Somewhere in a Dream, we again receive hints at that, as Delilah’s uncertainty around her own life leads her to converse with these long forgotten beings first-hand. Considering the apparent weight of the world being on Delilah’s shoulders, however, this time Muller’s film feels decidedly less forthright with its delivery.
Our protagonist delivers a relatively vague line about sometimes confusing herself as “the norm”, before being reminded of just how “different” she is from everyone else. Exactly what these differences are is never unpacked – presumably to provide us some level of universality. That is an amiable goal, but one which underestimates the audience’s ability to empathise. A film doesn’t need to avoid committing to being about a particular person or their intersecting struggles, for everyone else to be able to relate or see themselves in the drama. And to dodge this can leave viewers feeling as though they are being held out on, or even a little patronised.
It also means that the advice Gaia – the ancestral mother of all life – can only be delivered as the broadest of platitudes. Different types of trees need different things to flourish, but they all need water to live – etc. It is the kind of advice which sounds like a teacher addressing a child discussing petty insults in the playground, rather than something which will help human beings cope with a society where large portions of the electorate would rather they stopped being alive.
This is not to say Somewhere in a Dream is bad. There is a lot of potential in this premise, and in aspects of the delivery – but overall it feels a little trivial. This is also present in the way the nymphs around Gaia behave; giving off a delightfully ominous air when Delilah first arrives – emulating the unpredictable, intimidating side of a being which (as with fairies) is often pigeonholed as something cute and harmless. But as the story quickly progresses, this atmosphere completely disappears – leaving the nymphs to float about behind Gaia as she theatrically waves and swooshes her arms about.
In this case, it seems Muller was mostly concerned with visual style rather than telling or adapting a story. I say that because the way the movie looks is where it excels – using traditional techniques to provide us with an otherworldly visual glaze. According to the film’s submission notes, all of the colour grading and effects were done in-camera, using vintage lens filters – and as an experiment, that proves highly successful. It is a useful lesson which may enable Muller to save time and money bringing different spiritual planes to life in future stories – ones where there will be more time and space for a better-defined, more engaging story. In this case, however, it is used in service of a conversation where the players reach their end-point, before each meekly shuffling away from centre-stage.
Somewhere in a Dream works best as a learning experience, giving a young filmmaker some useful practical experience in effects and atmosphere, which can be put to good use in upcoming projects. But it lacks the cutting edge its storytelling needs to really captivate an audience this time around.