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One minute tonal exploration:

In the city streets of Edinburgh, a vulnerable man is pushed to the limits as he desperately attempts to cling onto the final thing left in his life; his faith.

 

THOMAS is a homeless man  who currently resides in an abandoned building on the outskirts of Edinburgh...

He has little possessions left besides, a bag he firmly keeps over his shoulder. Thomas soon reveals that the contents of the bag consist of many religious totems (crosses, a candle, shards of colored glass, postcards, jewellery, a hamsa, fabric, a conch shell, Khanda etc.) gathered from various places all over the world. In voiceover he explains that he believes these will provide him with good fortune. The care for these items has become a part of Thomas’ routine; a vice for getting by.

 

His faith is brought into doubt when intruders in the form of a group of homeless people break into the building. Like a rat, Thomas takes refuge in a cupboard in the corner of the room. Thomas is disturbed to helplessly witness one of the intruders stumble through the dark room and accidentally stand on and crush a few of the most fragile totems left on the floor. 

 

Thomas’ despair at the loss of totems leads him to make ill-advised decisions that put his own welfare into danger. Firstly, after begging frantically for money on the street, Thomas decides to purchase a distasteful shining Buddha from a shop window, though soon is disturbed to realise it doesn’t fit with his other more ‘organic’ totems. Thomas begins thinking irrationally and after falling asleep in the wrong part of the city, he is brutally attacked in the night. In the attack, Thomas is separated from his totems.

 

On a tram journey to an unknown destination, after a brief encounter with a young girl and her dismaying mother, Thomas reflects on his true loss in life. In his desolation and once again alone, he forges a cross of sorts made from sticks that he finds on the street. He places the cross in his top pocket and continues on his journey. The void, for now at least, seems filled.

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