A young woman struggling to cope with the death of her fiancee is offered a new prescription drug designed to reconstruct memories and ease the pain of loss.

Losing someone you love is one of the hardest things a human being will ever have to go through, where the mental and physical impact grief can have on a person can be strenuous and unbearable. This is where Rick McCullagh’s “In Retrospect” explores a world where a new prescription drug is designed to reconstruct memories and ease the pain of loss. However reality and reconstruction begin to clash forcing a young woman to face a painful truth.

I wrote the script back in in 2015 after I finished reading a great book on Hallucinations by the psychiatrist Oliver Sacks. In it he explored hallucinations experienced by those who have lost partners. How they can sometimes vividly see them sat in the living room or hear them calling them for the kitchen. I thought this was fascinating so that was the kernel of the narrative. From that it organically grew and brought in different themes on the ethics of medicating against grief which is a natural human condition and since I wanted it set in a world just a ahead in time from we are now, I wanted to explore the alienation people increasingly feel in a world that is increasingly interconnected and how this plays on our condition.

Rather surprisingly, the film was Rick’s first attempt at a directing role where he was just looking to learn from the experience. The result is quite the opposite we would expect from a first film, where the storyline is deeply woven letting us ponder over so many ethical issues, and the production value with magnificent visual standards. Since finishing the short, Rick expanded it into a feature length script and is currently in pre production. They are hoping to film it this year on a very low budget.