How sad it is to lose oneself to the past—to be in a perpetual state of denial of one’s true present. This rejection of the true self originates from the belief that a certain period, whether that occurs in one’s actual lifetime or in another entirely, is better than today.

Saudade

Portuguese /souˈdädə/

A deep emotional state of profound melancholic longing for something or someone about whom one cares. It often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might never be had again. It is the recollection of feelings, experiences, places, or events that once brought excitement and pleasure, which now trigger the pain of separation.

  • Reflection explores this mindset. It delves into that melancholic emotion known as nostalgia, pondering how it affects one’s daily life with consideration of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic theories surrounding identity and its correlation to the romanticization of the past.

  • While covering themes such as identity and a loss of self, Reflection is an abstract exploration of one’s confrontation with the ideal self, which has manifested itself as the true past and is remembered only in memory.

Synopsis

Reflection is the story of a seemingly ordinary woman who is unsatisfied with her mundane life. She begins to experience dream-like flashbacks of another lifetime in a déjà vu fashion. In her visions, she is a golden-age starlet living a glamorous life of fortune and fame in 1930s Hollywood.