Molina

Directed by Richard Chambers

2025

Concerted Productions

Molina is a new sci-fi drama short from Leicester filmmaker Richard Chambers which explores the ramifications of mind-altering technology amid tense human relationships.

The film begins with an intense and pulsating score (from Rachel Catlin) which immediately delivers a dark atmospheric tension before we are brought ‘back to reality’ with the sounds of a local pub.

Here we see a young woman (Elise Verney) sit across a table from an older man (Sean Tizzard) in an awkward encounter. She’s angry and upset and explains that she only agreed to meet because he promised this will be their final get together.

Off the bat, the film sets up an intriguing premise as we soon discover via flashback that they are father and daughter, but what could have caused this fracture between them?

There’s a warm glow to Joel Caborn’s cinematography, representing a more homely nature during a different time (or space?) where the man bakes cakes and their conversation is far more cordial - forcing the audience to confront topsy-turvy emotional whiplash like the characters themselves.

Again, the filmmaker provides a stark cut to another scene where this time the man is in an office discussing a payment plan to use technology to explore an alternative reality to his own, one which hints upon dreams and memory. And as electrodes are attached to his head we fade to black. Much like the narrative, the film itself pulls us into a black hole where we too are unsure where we are heading.

Molina is an interesting and enigmatic short with a few nods to existing sci-fi cinema. The obvious comparison is Philip K Dick’s work (most notably Total Recall’s corporate mind-and-memory-bending fantasy plot) but there’s also a hint of 2024’s The Substance where a shady company appears to deliver what the customer wants despite its possible detrimental consequences.

And like the best of those films (and despite some later revelations) the film’s message is to not provide easy, or even concrete, answers to the scenario it presents.

As the plot continues we see that after their brief interaction, the father fails to uphold his promise and arrives unexpectedly at the young woman's flat. But what appears to be suspicious, is soon brushed aside as he passes on a cryptic item that is central to unwrapping the plot. Again, what intentions look like on the surface and what’s really behind them are both key themes throughout.

But it's not all Christopher Nolan-style time-jumping exposition antics. The excellent two leads add a real emotional depth to the characters which helps keep everything grounded, especially when the heady sci-fi elements are in play.

A debut of some note, Molina has all the building blocks of a fantastic short. The time-shifting edits from Gemma Price, the functional but unique lighting and extremely assured writing - which slowly unfolds the mysteries it sets up - are all very impressive. And with such first-rate attributes, the film ends as a perplexing but mesmerising short - one that some more experienced filmmakers could only “dream of” making.

★★★★

4 / 5

Michael Sales