With the short film Dust Will Remember Me, writer, director, and star Derman Mohamett creates the bitter final hours of a man wandering the endless sands of a vast desert, tumbling perilously into nothing, carried on the searing winds toward his own doom.
As he walks, both his body and soul seem to deteriorate in unison. The meager supplies he carries soon run out. Then, as sleep deprivation and starvation set in, our wanderer drifts in and out of consciousness. We see him before his journey began, the ease and promise of a life abandoned in favor of something better.
Our wanderer keeps moving, despite the futility of his situation. In a moment of clarity, he takes pen and paper and forges a rushed last will and testament, which, like the stumbling footprints, shall be all that remains to mark his passing until the shifting sands reclaim all.
“… final hours of a man wandering the endless sands of a vast desert …”
But deserts are not always the last bastions separating would-be travelers from their own mythical oasis. Truth is, they are the stomping grounds of holy men, lunatics, and anyone else hoping to unwittingly stumble across their own private Shangri-La.
Mohamett offers a turbulent visual poem of what it is to be internally at war with oneself. Lost, aimlessly searching for meaning, truth, and understanding, all under the threat of fading into the distance and becoming little more than dust in the wind.
Dust Will Remember Me is a quietly harrowing depiction of the Sisyphean climb we all take, based on the choices we make, and the dreams we forsake.
"…a turbulent visual poem of what it is to be internally at war with one’s self."
