Mike Downey

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The Mortician

The Mortician

The Mortican, shot in digital 3D, is dark urban noir set in the nightmare ghetto of a decaying metropolis. A story of one man’s struggle through the darkness and corruption of a dying city. A story of reconciliation and hope.

The failing banking system has caused economic collapse. The city is bankrupt and the poor are corralled into a lawless ghetto. The MORTICIAN processes a forever-increasing line of corpses with a steely disregard. He is alienated and cold. He feels threatened by his new employee, NOAH, a volatile youth sent to work in the mortuary as part of his parole program and who brings the notorious gangster, CARVER, to the mortuary door.

The Mortician’s attention is pricked by the tattoo of Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’ inked on the body of a murdered young woman, JENNY. A fleeting recognition triggers a sequence of haunting dreams from his childhood. The discovery of a scared child, KANE, fleeing the morgue forces The Mortician to act.

The Mortician realizes the child is alone, and in mortal danger. Kane sparks The Mortician’s emotional awakening. He emerges from his icy state. The Mortician and Noah become reluctant allies united in the struggle to redeem themselves, determined to escape the physical and emotional chains that threaten to imprison them forever.
THE MORTICIAN is both soulful and brutal. It is a contemporary urban fable, a man stepping out from the darkness to light, a man rejoining the human race.

THE MORTICIAN uses 3D as a subtle immersive tool, rather than a flashy gimmick.

The Mortician
The Mortician

Festivals

  • Official Selection - Berlin Panorama 2011