Silent Narration

Dolby presents: Silent, a Short Film

A soft noise of an old music record fills the silence of a black and white film, and the music kicks in. The music is accompanied by that soft nostalgic noise known to old records. The first thing that catches the eye is the name of the movie, Silence and then the first frame appears. A cane underneath a hat in a dark frame subjected to some sort of a spotlight. The light emitted from the spotlight is so weak that everything seems like a featureless shadow or a hazy dream. A hand appeared and snatched the hat, which resulted in moving the cane underneath in a circular movement with a center, like that of a fan. Quickly, the hand appeared again, catching the cane and stopping its movement. A man, or a shadow of a man, holding the cane appeared, dancing. His movements resemble that of charlie chaplin’s; holding the cane with both hands, and moving them up and down while dancing. Slowly we zoom out into a bigger frame. The screen shrinks gradually until the whole picture is visible. zooming out, the dancing man shrinks, the screen borders appear, and gradually what seems like a barrel organ surfaces. A man who resembles, to a great extent, Buster Keaton is standing behind the barrel organ whisking its handle. He is accompanied by a young girl sitting in front of the barrel organ. The girl is sitting on a small chair behind a box that controls the barrel organ and is attached to it by a wire. They are standing somewhere surrounded by buildings, a road and some people. Both of them are wearing ragged old clothes. After looking around, the man winks at the young girl and smiles. She smiles back and nods, as if there is a secret language only known to them. The girl is beautiful. She is about ten years old, with wide coloured eyes, curly hair and a nice hat. She fixes her gaze on the box that controls the barrel organ. It looks like a mini piano with long vertical buttons and circular ones. She turns what seems like a sound button up which leads to the malfunction of the barrel organ and the toy penetrates the screen and destroys it. So, the music stopped, and people lost interest and left. The once joyous music is now replaced by a gloomy one and it starts raining on the empty hat that was supposed to be filled with money. Both of them stare melancholiously at it, then they shift their gaze to the raining gloomy sky. The top of a tall building was featured, lightning appeared across it and the rest of the building slowly appeared. They are then seen running towards the entrance of that building, carrying their stuff, to hide from the rain. They stare into the distance for a second, then something catches the young girl’s attention. A warm light, like that emerging from a dying bonfire appeared from the entrance. She pushed the door open with her tiny hands and rushed inside to what looks like a cinema hall. She rushed towards the center of the light. That warm light brought colour with it. It reflected on her lovely green eyes, her red hat, brown hair and on her friend wearing a brown suit in the back. That light emerged from what seemed like a bigger version of the barrel organ control box. She started pressing different buttons enthusiastically and spotlights were directed at the screen. At the screen, her friend stood, faced with something resembling his shadow. That shadow imitated him for a second then it started acting on its own. It placed the hat on its head and invited him over to the other side. He was blown away and looked at the girl to see if she noticed what just happened, but she was too busy discovering the new tool. Then, his hat flew over his head in correspondence with the shadow flying away. He held tight to his hat with both hands and it lifted him. Suddenly, he transitioned to the big screen on a railway scene. He almost got hit by the train, held his hat, jumped and transferred to a different scene. To a clock and the word “Help” suddenly appeared on a black screen in white. The screen acted as a barrier between two worlds; a coloured, and a black and white one. The girl with her control box was at the coloured one. The girl was trying different buttons and piano keys, while her friend was holding on to one of the huge clock’s hands. He almost slipped, but the girl unknowingly changed that scene to a tiny warzone one. She was from ear to ear in complete happiness when she noticed her friend. She quickly threw a book which had some notes she was following and tried different keys. An additional set of keys appeared. While trying, her friend was transformed to a better scene; coloured with blooming flowers, trees and birds. Then, it changed to a horror scene. He started running. To be chased by UFOs attacking him, jump from a ship, escape a deadly fire, fall from the top of a building to an underground hole filled with used floating stuff. In the midst of trying hard to help her friend and him floating aimlessly into a green abyss, he saw his cane. Like meeting an old friend, a forgotten hope or maybe both, he smiled and held it. Immediately a golden button appeared in the control box. He winked at the girl and she nodded back. Then, she clicked the button with a smile and magic happened. He transitioned back out of the screen with his colours, his hat, his cane. The same tone associated with the beginning was being played now. He looked around for her, to notice that she was around hugging him with a big smile. Then, they both were celebrated by all their audience in their own theatre. They weren’t wearing ragged clothes anymore…