Horror fans worldwide are set to have their minds truly twisted with the full online release of the award-winning horror short ‘PRAY’.
After spending the last year raising hell on the film festival circuit, psychedelic horror short ‘PRAY’ is finally available for everyone to see online.
Written by Claudio Ellovitch and Cheng Sing Yin and directed by Ellovitch, this bold Hong Kong/Brazilian production tells the story of a pensive monk who goes on a transcendent journey for meaning, and encounters worlds full of symbolism, horror and love that question everything he believes.
Here the lines between dreams, reality and religion are not so much blurred, but are utterly disregarded. In exchange, Ellovitch yanks away the safety net of familiar genre tropes, and leaves the viewer free falling into the unknown depths of their imagination.
The film’s surreal and somewhat experimental narrative is reflected in its eclectic production. There is a lyrical feel to it, a characteristic that can be attributed to the poetry of Indian artist Amit Desai. The poet, who also who plays the monk in the film, recites passages of his work which is used to haunting effect as the voiceover in the film.
The literary influence is also evident in the striking visuals. A former comic book store owner, Ellovitch, along with his director of photography Carlos Firmino and art director Wagner Ribeiro, use the graphical fidelity of comic books to layer the story in swirls of searing colour that bleed out from the precisely framed images. Combined with a foreboding score by Fabio Brum and Capileh Charbel, the 15 minute short film assaults the senses with relentless verve.
Winner of the covetable Viewster Online Film Festival and unlike anything you are likely to see this year, close the curtains and open your mind to the macabre mysteries of ‘Pray.’
http://vimeo.com/ellovitch/
About Claudio Ellovitch:
Claudio Ellovitch is an underground filmmaker from Brazil. Since 2006, he directed animated and live-action films that were very well received by the public and critics in (fantastic genre/arthouse) Film Festivals around the world. He also art-directed and co-wrote the script for the mystical graphic novel THTRU published by Stephen Cheng in 2014. He lives in São Paulo with his wife Andréa and daughter Isabela.
About Stephen Cheng:
Stephen Cheng is a Chinese producer and publisher. He received his education at Eton College and Harvard University. In the late 90s he embarked on a photographic journey with artist Amit Desai, and the two began to work on what later became America Sutra, a project that took over ten years to complete, and is being published in a series of photographic books, one collection of which, is named “Dear God”.
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Prayshortfilm2014/
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