Hulm: The Narrative Breakdown

"Hulm" came to us as a completely abstract idea. As I'm sure you can see through my previous posts, a lot of work and effort went into bringing it to life, but the initial idea even up until we shot it was more surrounding the actual camera work. Usually in the filmmaking process the script and narrative come first, but for us being amateurs, we had a clear idea on how and what we wanted to film, rather than why (the context). So after careful consideration (a chaotic process), here's the narrative breakdown of Hulm.

Hulm is about a woman in a lucid dream. The very word "Hulm" means "evil dream" in Arabic. It begins with the woman strolling through the bazaars of Lahore. She seems calm and collected exploring the architectural wonders freely and observationally. She enjoys this freedom in the open sky and the gardens, the many buildings and the birds.

She runs through the structures, feeling the breeze, until she slows down and realizes something is very wrong. Immediately, there is a glitch in her "reality". Her beautiful green and free dreamscape turns into a nightmare - a "hulm".

The tone changes drastically - she finds herself trapped in the very place she had escaped to. Slowly tension starts to build. She's getting nervous and the roses she was one touching, turn to thorns. The exploration turns into a frantic need to escape and hat she was first running to, starts to become what she's running from. She's completely isolated and claustrophobic in this world that has trapped her with nowhere to go.

She runs and runs, now outrunning this mysterious force of evil after which she abruptly wakes up in panic. The story can be taken in any way interpreted by the audience. The mysterious entity is symbolic for the terror that follows people who have faced horrific circumstances and traumas in our society.

It was something the woman was running from... something that caught up to her.