Out of all the articles I have written I think that this one has to be the most important as it concerns mental health. I don’t think there is one family that isn’t affected by this in one way or another at some point in their lives. If you are in the creative business it is almost a given that you will have to confront your demons. Continual rejection is part of the game and no one is immune to that! 

So how do we deal with our inner voices? One way is to use tools or cognitive therapy and self talk. It works! The problem is we bottle it all up, especially perhaps in England where some of us notoriously still have an in-built ‘stiff upper lip’.

So without giving all the story away our main protagonist in Confines has issues. He feels trapped, hence it is visualised in the form of a Blind House a place where drunks and thieves were incarcerated before we had a police force. It is a dark and confined space. This is where our man is holed up. His inner voices too are visualised. He beats himself up and as we travel through his journey with him we find out more and more about his journey and why he is tormented. Inner voices are rarely positive. We talk to ourselves in a way we would never talk to other people often reinforcing negative self images which can be very self destructive. 

As his voices berate him he tries to escape but like many of us, he gets caught up, tangled and lost, in the maze of his mind. I was watching a Netflix documentary the other week in which a famous actor interviews his psychiatrist. It is brilliant. The therapist brought up the same analogy and said we all get caught in ‘the maze’ and did a crude but effective sketch of a maze and an arrow straight past it. What you have to do, he said, is move forward. Always move forward and don’t get stuck in the maze. It was obvious once he said it but still a revelation to me. I will never get stuck in that maze again! 

In a way, making Confines was a therapy session! The story is Neil Bason’s, my long term collaborator. I told him about the Blind House and said “What if a man is trapped in his mind and we show that visually?” Neil jumped on it and took it from there with some of the most exquisite dialogue delivered with immense intensity by Luke F Dejahang. Listen to this. You will hear these lines in the trailer below. 

“Anxiety bites hard! The clamp on the chest and the gut punch! It comes in kicking! It doesn’t screw about with etiquette or introductions! It comes in kicking! When the attacks started, ‘Fight or Flight’ I was Icarus forever spirally without control. And then , in a rare moment of glassier fresh clarity, I saw my escape plan!”

Amazing words from screenwriter Neil Bason. A gift for both actor and director! It all rings so true, I am thinking that some true life experiences are being played out for real. 

Also do notice how master cinematographer John E Fry has lit the anxiety scenes in red. Colours reflect mood. 

 Again I won’t give away too much. All I will say is we don’t have to give in to our demons. Watch Confines. Hopefully you will be entertained, but even better inspired. Bless you all! And whatever you do , do not beat yourselves up! It’s all a passing show. 

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Richard Bazley’s Confines will be playing in a double-bill with his other multi-award winning film Censure at The Pound Arts in Corsham on November the 12th plus a Q+A with director and selected cast and crew.