A former underworld enforcer falls upon a brutal path of vengeance after his partner, a determined police detective, is tortured and killed by the ambitious leader of a ruthless crime syndicate.

Directors Statement

I have spent the majority of my life actively consuming stories through the medium of film. I have devoted countless hours watching anything form short films to features, music videos and television shows, a lot of which have been great, and provided me with a sense of entertainment and fulfilment through vicariously living through moments that I could never hope to actually experience, through the lives of characters that usually don’t actually exist. However, what I have noticed throughout the years is that a lot of the content I consume, while often great and highly enjoyable experiences, often don’t stay with me or have a lasting impact. There are so many films that I have seen that I have no recollection of, often completely forgotten that I have even seen some of these films. With My Darling Alex, I hope to make a film that will give the audience a memorable experience, something that will challenge and confront them, while also succeeding as a piece of entertainment.

The film centres around Isaac, an emotional and physically damaged man who has suffered through a life of cruelty and abuse, who uses brutality and violence to lash out against a world that has treated him with indifference. However, Isaac finds a quiet solace in Alex, a police detective who is the only person who Isaac has shared any sense of intimacy with, and it is Alex guides him away from a life of violence and crime. Despite that though, Alex has his own emotional issues which are exacerbated by his growing frustration with the corrupt police force that he is a part of, and as a result of this, he resorts to vigilantism, with the help of Isaac to carry out their frontier justice.

Through these two characters, I am hoping to create a very human exploration of co-dependency, and what it means to lose the person who gives you meaning in life. I want to touch upon an uncomfortable truth that people are not often as strong as they think they are. For many, the notion of living or trying to survive without someone in their lives who they can depend on is seemingly impossible. I want to explore the agony of losing someone through the character of Isaac and the sense of hopelessness he feels when Alex is taken from him, and how that is something he is ultimately unable to recover from.
Films such as Harry Brown and Death Wish serve as key influences for My Darling Alex for their depictions of loss and the sense of hopelessness that follows, as well as the violent ways in which the protagonists seek retribution for their loss.

Television shows such as True Detective and The Wire also serve as prominent influences the world in which My Darling Alex is set, which is a very murky, crime ridden world in which there are no distinct lines drawn between good and bad, where we have psychologically damaged characters with questionable pasts and ambiguous morals, and cinematic archetypes like corrupt authority figures, institutionalised dysfunction, and desperate people turning to vigilante justice.

Ultimately with My Darling Alex, I am hoping to make a film that is simultaneously entertaining, yet challenges and confronts audiences. I want them to feel empathy for someone who is not fundamentally a good person, to understand his actions through his loss, and question wether or not they would have done something similar if they were in his position. Hopefully, by telling a story about grief and loss infused with action and noir elements, My Darling Alex will be a film that resonates with an audience.