Morning Person: A Call for Complexity

A young woman wakes up to several missed calls and finds herself in a difficult situation with her family when she is caught between their expectations and her desires. Through my short film I tried to represent the miscommunication within immigrant communities, and how we come to define a human being. On one hand, there are certain values that we inherit from older generations, and on the other hand, we are confronted with the complexities of our everyday lives which force us to formulate our own moral values. I was very interested in the idea of trying to negotiate between these contrary emotions within us. I intended to use the telephone as a metaphor for this moral dilemma that is hard to overcome. Starting from a naked person, with whom we can all identify with, I tried to show a transition to someone who has many social and political labels and however still remains the same human being that we saw at the beginning. It was important for me to show this as a fragment rather than a fully rounded up narrative, in order for the missed call element and its impact to stay with the viewer even after watching the film.