In a world where soulmates are joined together by a long, winding red thread, one has only to follow the trail to find one’s soulmate. When our protagonist is egged on by a friend to go and look for his soulmate, he decides to follow his ‘red thread of fate’ to find the person on the other end. His long search takes him through a maze of difficult situations, and he soon starts daydreaming of people we wished were at the other end of his thread. And, when he finally manages to reach the other end, there is met with a surprise that he is not quite ready for.
‘Threaded’ is a short student film from Director Jack Hillebrecht. The director takes the basic Chinese legend of the ‘red thread of fate’ and reimagines the same in a modern setting with a literal manifestation of the invisible thread of fate. For a student film, the director shows tremendous maturity by establishing the ground rules of that world early on, with a single shot. He follows this up with the girl talking about her feelings when she discovered her soulmate at the end of the line. Communicating a concept as abstract as this with minimal effort, in a fool-proof manner, is no mean achievement in a student film.
If only it was this easy to identify one’s soulmate in the real world, many good souls would not have to go through the mistakes and the pain they do now. When it is as clear as glass, who is destined for whom and who is not, no one has to waste precious time on the wrong path. It also means that it is futile to expect the possibility of a different end. The film highlights the importance of ‘hope’ for us humans and asks ‘what if’ fate has a cruel surprise waiting for you at the other end of your line?
