When Alfred’s parents bring home his new baby brother, he unravels and decides he must kill the baby before he loses his parents love and affection.

Director’s Vision for ‘Sugar Rag’

Sugar Rag is a short subject film, meant to be both a satirical and visually alarming look at Alfred Adler’s Theory of Dethronement. Adler, a renowned Austrian psychotherapist, had discussed the theory which is essentially the idea that many children in their early stages of psychological development, will feel greatly threatened by the arrival of a younger sibling, and are often prone to behavioural issues. This theory is one that deals with both a young child’s natural territorial impulse and can even be seen as extension of Freud’s Oedipus Complex.

The idea behind the film was to make an uncomfortably comical, and deeply unsettling visual interpretation of this concept in which the characters and the setting are both surreal by nature. The film follows a young boy named Alfred living alongside his highly wealthy (and eerily cartoonish) mother and father who have just brought home a new child. While an immediate feeling of betrayal consumes Alfred, he becomes unable to see his younger sibling as what he is, but rather a full-grown man wearing a child’s mask. Highlighting, as well, the confusion that comes from a child discovering a world of adults and that sex cannot be escaped. Although the film has little dialogue, it is meant to be a stimulating visual display of this concept rather than something that spoon-feeds the audience.

The film is riddled with multiple thematic images and references, such as Albrecht Durer’s Madonna with Siskin which hangs on the wall of their home and features the child with a pacifier (a sugar rag is the origin of a pacifier). Or that Alfred’s younger sibling has been named Remus as a reference to the greek mythological tale of Romulus and Remus, in which Romulus murders his younger brother in order to win the favour of the Gods. Originally scheduled to be my thesis film at the Australian Film Television Radio School, they would not allow me to make this film. I made it on my own and it was a joy to work with such talented cast and crew.