Survival has nothing elegant about it. On the contrary, it often appears as a dirty, exhausting struggle, fought in a world that seems to have already decided who has the right to exist and who must be pushed to the margins. ‘Behind The Reflection‘ is precisely about this form of survival. Director Velton J. Lishke depicts the drama of a queer woman trying to find her place in a social space dominated by aggression, prejudice, and toxic forms of masculinity. In other words, for Shae, identity is a wound constantly exposed to the gaze of others. Therefore, the short film tackles simulation as a defence mechanism and about the way in which a person ends up playing a role in order not to be destroyed by the world around them, even if that role takes them further and further away from their true self.
Shae attempts in vain to adapt to a reality that rejects her almost instinctively. In a brutal environment, where marginality and self-destruction seem to be the only accepted forms of language, the protagonist tries to conform and hide her fragility. But every gesture of integration turns into a new form of alienation, until her encounter with a woman who has embraced her identity creates a crack in an inner wall. This becomes the beginning of a path toward acceptance, with all the hesitation and pain such a process entails.
