‘The Hanged Man’ is a short film directed by Jeremy Chi-hang Au.

A short fantasy drama about a destitute man who is about to commit suicide when a mysterious visitor gives him a chance to change one thing he has done in the past.

Awards & Nominations

Hollywood Just4Shorts, 2019 (USA)

• Winner of Best Short Film (August)

FilmQuest, 2019 (Utah, USA)

• Winner of Best Supporting Actor (Gordon Peaston)

• Official Selection

Canada Shorts Film Festival, 2019 (New Brunswick, Canada)

• Winner (Award of Excellence)

Liverpool International Film Festival, 2019 (Liverpool, UK)

• Winner of Best Student Film

• Official Selection

Harrogate Film Festival, 2020 (Harrogate, UK)

• Official Selection

Manchester International Film Festival, 2020 (Manchester, UK)

• Winner of Staff Pick Award

• Official Selection

Vienna Independent Film Festival, 2020 (Vienna, Austria)

• Official Selection

As a human, many of us hope to imagine our lives to be a clear path. No one would expect one’s life to be full of hardships or hurdles. Life is full of complications and it always surprises and shocks us at the most unexpected places. We are aware that life itself is rough and never a plain field, yet subconsciously we tend to avoid acknowledging it.

The journey of life is just like hiking in the mountains. The most painful part of the journey is when you are about to arrive at the point with the world’s most amazing scene, yet life kicks in with a horrendously dense fog, enveloping your surroundings and completely blocking your eyes and impeding your eyesight. You are at a point of lost and disorientation. You have no idea whether a step forward would lead you to bungee jump off a hanging cliff or a step backwards would roll you down a deadly valley. Here you have to make a choice, no matter what, as you understand that standing still will just cost you more.

Like every passionate filmmaker, I love to examine every little aspect of humanity and question the boundaries of it. I was very fortunate to be able to work alongside a group of talented collaborators in “The Hanged Man” which allowed me to put forward this project as a director. Perhaps being born and raised as a Hongkonger, there are many occurrences in the recent years forcing us to make choices. It is not hard to make a decision when it is to choose between an obvious good choice and a bad choice, but what happens when we have to choose between two good choices, or that we were only given two bad choices? The theme of choice was something that I wanted to explore through my short film. What is actually a choice? What is the essence of it? How does it impact the people who make the choice or those who provide the options? Does making different choices ultimately lead to varied outcomes or is there an inevitable answer in fate?

Cast

Jonathan – Dritan Kastrati
Kai – Gordon Peaston
Sarah – Ulrika Belogriva

Crew

Director – Jeremy Chi-hang Au
Producers – Shan Wong, Janice Tsang
Writer – Shan Wong

Assistant Director – Sogol Afshar
Production Manager – Claudia Kaleta
Production Consultant – Sienna Beckman
Script Supervisor – Romain Leroy
Production Assistant & Transport – Mattia Capasso
Production Assistant – Alan Johnson

Director of Photography & Colorist – Miguel Mateo Cármenes Carrera
1st AC – Anna Höwing
2nd AC – Marta Garcia Castañon
Gaffer – Vianney Kernanet-Huggins
Spark – Alina Zakharova

Production Designer – Mikolaj Wasowski
Art Department Assistant – Suzana da Conceicao
Costume Designer – Ellie Passantino-Jones
Hair & Make-up Artist – Marianne Widmer
Sound Recordist & Boom Operator – Andrea Calaprice

Editor – Borja Torres Sánchez
Composer – Julio Cármenes
Sound Designer – Simply Sonic Studios
Still Photographer – Mathew Hodgkin
Behind-the-scene Videographer & Editor – Wilkie Wai Kei Chiu
Behind-the-scene Videographer – Elaine Wong
Campaign & Social Media Manager – Janice Tsang

…and a big thank you to all of our backers on Kickstarter – we couldn’t have done it without your support! Here’s our Wall of Supporters.

Manchester Film Festival

Interview with our Director, Jeremy Chi-hang Au, on the red carpet at the Manchester Film Festival — on where the idea of ‘The Hanged Man’ came from, what challenges were faced, and his favourite thing about making the film.

Harrogate Film Festival

Interview at the Harrogate Film Festival — on the journey of making the film, where the inspiration came from and Jeremy’s thoughts and reflections on ‘The Hanged Man’.