by Oscar O’Sullivan

Anyone who grew up in the early days of social media may remember the aura of fear and mystique that had many parents convinced the internet was a den of predators hiding behind each and every screen. We were told to never speak to online strangers, never give out our real names, and to never, I mean never, meet someone from the internet. Sound advice, obviously, yet something about it felt stifling to the generation of kids with very little context for a pre-internet world. Fast-forward to today, that polarity seems to have almost fully reversed – now online platforms are a (relatively) safe, moderated space for almost all social interaction to take place, while the real world is too scary and intense for helicopter parents to risk having their precious babies wandering loose in. Into The Silence takes place a good decade before any of these changes in the way we socialise took place, yet there is something about it’s story that I feel captures that zeitgeist; the conflict between playing it safe and living a full life on your own terms.

This short film from writer/director Michael Antonio Keane (a familiar face in Cork’s thriving independent film scene) pulls us right into the action with an immediately arresting opening sequence, dropping us into the world of the underground rave sans context. In a montage of documentary-style street footage and pulse-pounding club action, we are invited to taste the lifestyle which these characters choose to embody before we are introduced to the conflict this ecstatic existence causes. Set in 1993, the film seeks to recreate the Dublin rave scene through the eyes of it’s lead, aspiring DJ Bastien (Daniel Soluns). Bastien and his buddy Alex (Louis Martin) are in their element in the teeming, sweaty crowds of the packed dancehall. When we meet them again in the cold light of day, all they want to discuss is their next chance to party, seemingly caught up in the hedonism of youth and oblivious to the many dangers of the scene – drugs, violence, debauchery. But Bastien isn’t just in it for cheap thrills – he’s a creative soul, a musician who thrives on the admiration of this little community as his heart and soul is blasted through the speakers and washes over a neon-hued crowd. In his home life, he seems small and meek, a far cry from the wanton abandon of his earlier clubbing. At the dinner table, he listens passively as his parents moan and groan over these darned underground ravers, decrying the whole thing as a dangerous teenage rebellion that’s more about drugs and violence than the music it claims to champion. Even as we hear his parents speak, we are shown that they don’t have the whole picture, with the film cutting to Bastien slaving away over the keyboard in his room, grinning to himself as he crafts his latest techno beat. For him, it’s most definitely about the music, the act of creation, of sharing that creation.

The dinner table conversation is framed with Bastien sat between his parents, slowly pushing in until they have been cut entirely out of the frame, isolating and hemming in the lad as he squirms under his own deception. It’s a simple but effective piece of visual storytelling, and pays out again in a later scene where Bastien tearfully confesses his guilt and his parents enter the frame from either side to comfort him. Director of Photography Fiachra Cotter O’Cúlacháin manages to achieve a cinematic look that often eludes these sort of short films, not due to a lack of budget or time, but due to a lack of consistency, of attention to detail. Every shot here serves a narrative purpose, as does every edit, every hit of music. Fittingly, a film where music plays such an important role has a gripping soundtrack, with no less than three composers (Gabriele Liotta, Michael O’Sullivan and Eoghan Turner) credited for the integral club beats heard throughout. The script is a fine example of economy in storytelling – with only ten minutes to tell this tale, Into The Silence hits all the right beats without getting bogged down in expository dialogue, and the film has a nice snappy pace throughout, relying on the visuals and atmosphere to do the heavy lifting.

At the heart of the story is the simple belief that creative outlets are vital to the human spirit. The raves that Bastien and Daniel frequent may well be dangerous, but they are probably the only way these two young men can really be themselves. And when tragedy does strike, it is music and creativity that allow Bastien to express his trauma, that allows the film to end on a note of hope and tenderness. No value judgement is made here about the culture itself or the dangers these spaces can breed. If anything, the film seems to say that it’s important to exist outside the bounds of what your elders might consider “safe”. It is only by journeying outside the norm, the sanitised, padded, parent-approved safe spaces of the world, that we can be free to grow and create and live a full life. And even if it results in tragedy, well, that’s life – tragedies will happen no matter what you do, so we might as well live a little in the meantime. Into The Silence invites us to consider how much of our own capacity for self-expression we’re willing to give up in the name of safety. Thoughtful, textured and quietly inspiring.

I’m very grateful to have received an early screener of this new short, and I’ll be rooting for it’s upcoming festival run. The film has been selected for the 16th Undeground Cinema International Film Festival, screening at the Royale Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire in Dublin on September 7th. And keep an eye out for a date announcement for a 90s rave themed showing at the Sirius Arts Center exhibition space in Cobh. You can follow into.the.silence on Instagram to keep up with the latest news and updates about the film’s release.