Martyrmachiavellian
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MartyrMachiavellian is a 59 minute short film produced by the NUS law faculty.
The film is a critique on the meritocratic ideals in Singapore. The protagonist belongs to a once wealthy family, flanked by a maverick elder brother and a precocious younger sister. When the family descends into poverty, the family ties become very strained. The protagonist is caught in a predicament of living up to his parents' expectations and living in the shadows of his much more capable, but under-achieving siblings.
Eventually he conjures up a solution in his head to rescue the family (the martyr), but fate intervenes and proffers a hideous marriage of convenience (hence the machiavellian), which makes the original solution simpler but also more deceitful. The film culminates in the loss of one of the siblings, and the realisation that nothing should have been lost in the first place.
The film is driven by the use of flashbacks, voiceovers and complex solliloquies.
