Behind the Film: Before You Go

Before You Go is a visceral and unflinching drama about the mental health crisis in the UK. Its themes touch on life and death, love and forgiveness and the search for peace.

The film sees Callum, a cocky but troubled young man, arriving at a hospital to say a final goodbye to a dying loved one on life support, but when faced with the grim reality of the situation, Callum is forced to face his own mortality.

I wrote the film several years ago (pre-pandemic). Inspired by a hundred stories of friends, family, stuff I’d read and watched in the media and on TV. A reaction to what was fast becoming a mental health crisis in the UK, with seemingly no real attempt by the state to do anything about it.

Post-pandemic, that crisis is only worsening. This story seemed more relevant than ever, and well worth telling – and without revealing too much, beyond the initial reveal, a story that asks a tough but honest question about what happens when someone has truly reached the limit of what they can bear.

As stated previously, I wrote this film in 2019 but hadn’t quite recovered from the trauma of making my first short film, so I left it on my desktop for 6 short years, finally deciding to get off my arse last year and make it. And sadly, it felt more relevant than ever.

The film is set in Liverpool, but ironically we couldn’t afford to shoot there, so we shot the film at London Southbank Uni, who have the most phenomenal training wards that they hire out to film crews. Would recommend.

We are a proper low budget short (around £6.5k total), and the location took nearly 50% of that. We saw other hospital sets that would’ve wiped us out completely, and although we hadn’t budgeted for anywhere near that much of our pot going to location, reality struck. Friends helped out for free; my wife Laura Aikman, who also co-produced, acted in, and co-financed the film, did the catering, and a number of my brilliant HODs worked for free. Thanks, guys!

It’s real state-of-the-art kit at LSBU. So much so that the university Technician, Blessing, was able to map out a simulation of the medical arc of our dying character on the hospital monitors throughout the entire film, so that any time we see the vitals on screen, they’re accurate to the character’s physical state. We simply reset the simulation every time Susie Hall (our Producer and 1st Ad) called action. It made what was a very tight one-day shoot much easier, and made our Editor’s (Joan Gill Amorim) life, and that of VFX, much easier too.

 I’m chuffed to bits to be a finalist at Worcester Film Festival. The film has only just started its journey, and Worcester will be only our second festival and fourth public screening. I can’t wait to meet the other filmmakers and watch their work.

To be selected at such a highly respected, BIFA qualifying festival in a beautiful part of the country, screening Before You Go at an ODEON cinema – can’t wait.

You can follow the film’s journey on Instagram at beforeyougofilm and can follow me, the writer/director, at @kennardmatt