Art is not always a means of sublimating trauma. It can be a form of self-destruction precisely because total immersion in one’s own suffering does not always lead to a trivialization of pain. ‘Baobhan Sith‘ is more than a reconsideration of the toxic relationship between a young man and his dysfunctional family. It is a rejoinder to the romantic myth in which the doomed artist manages to use their own trauma to perfect an existence tainted by an unhappy context. Hayley Louise McGuire creates a bitter short film about the seen and unseen poisons of a family who, while wanting to “transform” their son into a “man”, leave wounds on his soul that are impossible to heal. This is a project that, on the one hand, questions social and family stereotypes, as it tackles the educational principles of a philosophy designed to brutalize and erase any weakness that could compromise “healthy” integration into the social environment. On the other hand, the director somewhat problematizes the limits of artistic discourse, which seems to be a form of prolongation of suffering rather than a path to rehabilitation. Violence is a virus that persists, even beyond the grave, even when the source of the evil can no longer touch you, but it can still haunt your dreams.
This source of evil is the image of the mother that the artist Matthew cannot exorcise in any way. Could her death be the beginning of his healing, or is it just an illusion that will not change anything after all? In a richly textured cinematic work infused with folkloric and gothic elements, reminiscent at times of Guillermo del Toro’s hauntingly innocent macabre, Hayley Louise McGuire crafts a harrowing journey through the past, present, and imagination of a protagonist condemned to endlessly relive the torment of his childhood self. In a succession of sequences that approach a varied and evocative chromatic spectrum, the director probes with enviable precision the sensitivity of a victim in whose mind the demons bear the faces of his own parents. This is a short film that terrifies and thrills with equal intensity, leaving behind the bitter taste of a failed existence but also the surprise of having witnessed an overwhelming cinematic experience. Reconsidering in a poetic and visceral manner the fragility of a character condemned to self-destruction, ‘Baobhan Sith’ is a short film that bears the signature of a director with a special artistic vision.
