From the movie’s description: Once upon a future, there was a man who didn’t grow wings. He yearns to fly and is obsessed with flying, so much that he has vivid dreams about flying every night. One time, when the dreams vanished without a trace, his world crumbled and he could no longer ‘fly’ in his dreams. He was devastated, and goes through extreme measures like consuming illegal medication and taking risky injections to grow wings artificially, but nothing worked. When he realized that he could no longer hope on real physical wings, he decides to build his own flying machine, and eventually invents his own sanctuary of flight.
“Enflightenment” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative
The film begins with a man being interviewed on camera talking about a dream about a winged man. His depiction, however, is quite dynamic, as we see him from different angles, or him playing with a dreamcatcher, or through a filter that makes him show as if we are watching him through water, or even dancing on occasion. He then proceeds on a tour on his apartment and some unusual machines he own only to soon return to the concept of flying and particularly, wings. It soon becomes a evident that he is trying to build a flying machine, in a land, however, where the display of wings in public is now illegal.
Moving somewhere between the stage play, the performance and the short movie, “Enflightenment” makes the most out its probably limited budget, with Teo Wey Yinn and his DP, Adrian Wong, using a number of visual “tricks”, including the aforementioned different perspectives of the protagonist, in order to make their movie more cinematic. Teo and Audrie Yeo’s dynamic editing also moves into the same direction, inducing the short with a rather appealing sense of speed, resulting in a movie, that, in the end, is quite pleasing to the eye
Regarding context, the concept of wings and the fact that they are forbidden in the country the story takes place in, seems to be a metaphor for LGBT rights in Malaysia, which are essentially non-existent. The approach Teo takes, however, is as subtle as possible, to the point that the metaphor could be about any kind of dream and any kind of laws that prevent it.
Roshafiq Roslee in the protagonist role is captivating on occasion, with his evident charisma becoming evident throughout the 11 minutes of the short.
“Enflightenment” is essentially an experimental short posing as something art-house, in an approach, though, that works quite well, in a movie that is quite easy to watch, and definitely provides some food for thought through its flying metaphor.
