Alex Salam
Aged 18, I chose stability and certainty over creativity and impulse. I studied medicine, became a doctor, witnessed life and my fair share of death. For years, I built a narrative. Hard facts and logic win over ambiguity and emotion. But there was always a niggling feeling. A way to express what was missing eluded me. I chased it through increasingly bold experiences. I lived in Antarctica for a year, on the most remote research stationon the planet, studying the effects of isolation on human physiology for the European Space Agency. I ran an Ebola hospital in Sierra Leone during the West African Ebola outbreak. I researched epidemics for the UK government - more Ebola, plague, other diseases, living and working in the DRC, Somaliland, Madagascar, and others. These experiences left their mark on me, made me question my choices, and, unexpectedly, also, my moral character. This moment of questioning brought things to a head and repeatedly drew me back to what I was in awe of as a child. Film. The juxtaposition of images leading to narrative insight. I needed to bring something to life in the unpredictability that follows creativity and the act of trusting your subconscious. I needed to trust in art, not just science.
My first two shorts (CRASHING & MA) were simple, both filmed in one room, each over the course of one day. Both set in hospital, but that’s just a coincidence. Perhaps both a little too brash and edging towards melodramatic, but a place to start rather than the destination. CRASHING was selected for four Oscar qualifying festivals and received a special mention for the Oscar and BAFTA qualifying Light in Motion Prize at Foyle Film Festival. MA was recently completed and is currently in submission. My next short (ONE) is an ambitious film set in Russia - under the ever present gaze of the state, a widowed woman is forced into committing an act that will forever change her identity as a mother. This is the step I need to take prior to embarking on long form drama. I have also completed my first feature screenplay (BRIGHT STAR) and am currently working on a second feature and a limited series.
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Summary of themes
It feels as if America is reaching a moment. An inflection point. One that could tip into a potentially irretrievable future. Of moral bankruptcy, in the absence of change. We see this in its gun violence, its opioid crisis, its go-all-out pursuit of capitalism, its none-for-all healthcare system, its mass incarceration and execution of its citizens, its addiction to fame and celebrity, the myths it spins, its past, and its political polarisation. The seeds for this were undoubtedly sown long ago, some perhaps in the 1980s, when Bright Star is set, when the creep of political polarisation began in earnest. This story was born from me witnessing America’s troubles.
It unsettles me to observe the most powerful country on Earth suffer through these issues whilst having the overwhelming means to tackle them, if only it chose to. I find this a disquieting and upsetting contradiction. As a doctor, I’ve witnessed suffering and death in countries that don’t have the economic resources to help its citizens as they would wish to. This script is a response to America's current state and the failure of its moral duty towards its citizens, despite its wealth and power. It places my feelings within the context of a character, the Warden, who faces a moment, a decision, in which his identity is irreversibly lost. The principle theme of Bright Star therefore can be summarised as ‘America corrupts the soul’, as it tracks the journey of a moral man, Warden Coleman, who ultimately commits a moral atrocity as a result of the weight of America’s nature upon him.
Within this theme, lies a multitude of sub-themes and subjects that are central to America’s historical and modern identity, such as ‘America is guilty of mass murder’, ‘The crimes of the individual are born from America’s lust for violence’, ‘The platforms that the media give to certain individuals renders the media complicit in the nature of those individuals’, ‘Our current obsession with celebrity revels in superficiality and soundbites’, ‘As a nation, America is losing its integrity’. Whilst some of the themes are framed as statements, others are presented more as questions, such as ‘Where does the boundary between free will and determinism lie?’, ‘To what extent can we hold a nation responsible for the nature and actions of its citizens?’, “If a moral individual commits a moral atrocity for the greater good, do they cease being moral?”. This is therefore a challenging film with many ideas and themes that are drawn to the surface over the course of the film.
Bright Star is subversive, heavy in dialogue and visual symbolism, and with a touch of the supernatural. The film relies on character, dialogue, and symbolism to express its ideas and themes. The main theme ‘America corrupts the soul’ is critically dependent on symbolism. Structurally this film is unusual as the story gradually morphs its focus towards the Warden, but this is essential in subverting the audience’s expectations. America has a lust for blood, whether that be in its obsession with true crime or the lengths it goes to to execute its citizens. By engaging the audience with a story that initially focuses on a mass murderer, then gradually drawing them towards the Warden, the audience become complicit in that lust. By the end of the film, I want the audience to feel conflicted, terrified, and in awe of America’s ability to corrupt an honest individual.
Whilst this film doesn’t offer a solution to America’s problems, my aim is to make the audience feel something they aren’t used to feeling. And in that feeling, I hope to inspire people’s thoughts and dialogue in trying to reach for a different version of America’s future.