A man is attempting suicide but fails. However this doesn’t mean he has given up his idea. The reason? Unknown, but after his first failure he appears to be haunted by something… or someone… looking exactly like himself, only evil.

 

Joseph Colby Doler’s film ‘HANGMAN‘ is one of the most powerful allegories that our festival has hosted lately: it is the eternal fight between good and evil, only that the sights are being set on its source – the human heart.

 

‘HANGMAN’ is a very ‘introspective’ film both as a film that focuses on the duality of the inner ‘universe’ of its main character and as a short motion picture that urges the viewer to introspection. The personage of Joseph Doler’s flick is actually leading a fight against himself. It is his good side trying to ‘rehabilitate’ him and his dark side torturously haunting him and trying to make him end his days. It is obviously a hard fight not easy to cope with and fear has a lot to do with it. ‘Fear’ is actually very symbolic in ‘HANGMAN’ as it is what is driving both the protagonist’s ‘resistance’ against his dark side, and his self-destructive, malefic tendencies. In the first case it is the fear to resign to one’s dark side (the fear of death, pain or simply of facing the unknown) while in the second is the fear to live with having to stand up against the dark side. 


The viewer is easily engaged by the intense experience behind ‘HANGMAN’ and self-reflection is stimulated and triggered. We every so often need to face our own selves in order to evolve and make steps forward. It is the fights we win against ourselves that move us forward and not those we win against others. ‘HANGMAN’ can also be looked at as a very refined insight on the psychology of the suicide which is tormenting, obsessive and tiring. An endless agonising about one’s own person coming from their discontent with themselves.

 

For the vivid vision about its theme and the forceful emotional experience it offers, TMFF has awarded ‘HANGMAN’ with the 2nd Place for Best Short Film Of February 2017.

 

TMFF RATING:

 

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