Rob Munday
If you could hire a friend for a day, what would you have them do? Eat food with you, test out your new VR game, watch you while you get high? In Andrew Theodore Balasia’s intriguing short film Souvenirs, the director invites his audience to spend some time with a friend-for-hire, as he, in turn, spends his time with his clientele. Exploring themes of identity, companionship and hyperreality, at just 12-minutes long Souvenirs presents a thought-provoking scenario and a vast universe primed for expansion.
Introducing viewers to its lead character as he hungrily tucks into a meal in a candlelight room, watched by an ecstatic woman in a tiara and long gloves, Souvenirs certainly gets off to an intriguing start. From here on, we’re plunged into a bizarre VR world of skyscrapers and magic tricks he’s testing for a customer, before accompanying another of his clients into a neon space for some recreational drug use. While this is all a good introduction to the short’s lead character and his unusual work, the real emotional core of the story comes when he’s approached by a pregnant woman to play the role of father to her unborn child – a part he apparently plans to take very seriously.
“I found myself people-watching … wondering if their relationships were real or arranged copies of the real thing”
“I read an article in The Atlantic several years ago about a man and his business offering services as a ‘friend-for-hire’ in peoples’ personal lives”, Balasia explains as we discuss the origin of the Souvenirs narrative. “These services seemed like a form of therapy, bringing balance to lives that needed it, filling in a void that they longed for. I found myself people-watching in the mall, grocery stores, gas stations and wondering if their relationships were real or arranged copies of the real thing”, the filmmaker adds.
Revealing that he “loved the idea of using this business model as a palette to explore so many different types of characters, stories, and interactions”, Balasia was drawn to the idea of developing a character “whose trajectory didn’t really have a goal except to aid and help others” and so, Souvenirs was born. A film that hopes to show that real connections can grow from the artificial, this high-concept, provocative piece introduces topics and scenarios that will linger in your thoughts long after watching.
Alex Hungtai’s charismatic central performance is vital in the appeal of Souvenirs
Driven by a captivating lead performance by experimental Jazz musician Alex Hungtai, the real hook with Souvenirs is its immersive nature and its ability to place its audience within the scenario, considering what they would do in similar situations. Inspired by a real-life story, the concept of Balasia’s film is grounded in reality, but it presents this ‘friend-for-hire’ option as such a common place occurrence that the short has a sense of being set in a different time, or alternate reality. And like all good films that provoke this feeling, it’s the ‘what-if’s’ that provide the reverberating impact of the narrative and ultimately the question that Souvenirs appears to be asking is whether we’re all just playing a role in the story of life.
Alongside that captivating premise, Souvenirs also impresses with a striking aesthetic. With each scene shot differently, to reflect the individual personalities of the characters involved, Balasia and his team obviously paid great attention to how the short’s world would materialise on screen. Essentially told through vignettes, the film opens with an ambiguous scene, shot in a way that we have no real idea of the period or location. Though things become clearer as the film progresses, with the story mainly taking place in interior locations we get no sense of the world outside and this timeless nature continues. As the film ends, in a final hazy scene set in the lead character’s future, we’re left with more questions than answers, but Balasia has made it so that it doesn’t feel frustrating, if anything it’s freeing, allowing your mind to probe for the answers it desperately wants.
“The world we created in the short felt vast and without rules, but with the feature we went more microscopic”
With Balasia admitting that “the possibilities felt endless” for his narrative, it should come as no surprise that the filmmaker is currently working on a feature based around the same themes. Working with his writing partner David McGrory, the director says that by creating the short, it allowed him to “work through this idea and find the right corners to chew on before diving into the long-form version”. Although the films share similarities, the short isn’t just a scene from the larger piece, with Balasia explaining that there’s a large difference in the worlds of the films, where Souvenirs’ felt “vast and without rules”, the feature’s looks to go “more microscopic”. With the director now focusing on trying to get his feature made, we hope that by showcasing Souvenirs on Short of the Week today, we can help kick start that process.