During the Covid-19 lockdown, “Stigma” explores the emotional impact on Bochra, a young woman living alone in France. Through webcam exchanges with her parents in Tunisia, Bochra struggles with painful memories and a dark past. Confronted with solitude in her Parisian apartment, she faces shadows of her past, gradually revealing a deeply buried trauma. The film delves into themes of resilience, the importance of family bonds, and the quest for self in an isolated world, leading to a poignant revelation.

https://www.instagram.com/stigmashortfilm/

Review by Victoria Angelique:

The short film STIGMA is a powerful narrative that delves into many themes through the use of symbolism and character exploration. It seems to have an element of ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS twist as the story depicts the desperation of parents to save their daughter through a video call when they can’t physically get to her location.

The story is heart wrenching from the first moment when Bochra’s father appears on screen. The filmmaker makes the audience think the film is a science fiction world with the outstanding special effects and makeup design, though quickly makes it clear that this is a dream world of the girl’s father. A symbol of the man feeling powerless and silenced as he can’t save his child from drowning in her own world. He and her mother are desperate to save their daughter from her pain, wanting her to look at them as they literally watch the life drain out of her. Their screams penetrate through the screen and it’s only their love that echoes into Bochra’s drug induced hallucinations.

As life begins to drain from the young girl, it begins to get hard to tell what is real and what is fake for her. It gives a Wonderland vibe as Bochra begins to go between the world of the living and the dead. She sees everyone she’s ever loved and everyone who has ever hurt her outside of a train. The story makes the character come to a powerful choice, where it is up to her to decide if she wants to continue to live or if she wants to die. 

The biggest question that remains is if the entire film was a hallucination for Bochra as she has a picture frame of a cemetery. It leaves the question open to if she really was talking to her parents on the video call or if she got off the train to join them in heaven. The film shows both realities, her parents crying through the video call and Bochra getting off the train to meet them in the clouds. This leaves it up to the audience to determine what really happened to the fate of this young woman.