A short film created by Bournemouth University students is to be showcased at the Imperial War Museum (IWM) Short Film Festival this week.

The film, called ‘Muscle Memory’, has also been entered into the IWM Short Film Festival Awards 2014, where it will compete in the Best Creative Response category.

‘Muscle Memory’, tells the story of Dorothy and Percival a couple seeking retribution for the role played by a local journalist in the imprisonment of their son, a serviceman. Under hypnosis the journalist is compelled to run, with no end in sight. This dark comic film blends fantasy with a degree of realism to give it a tragic undercurrent beneath the absurd activity.

The film was written by Scriptwriting Master’s student Naeevon Daryan and directed by Nor Hazlin Nor Salam, who is studying a Master’s in Directing Digital Film and TV.

The awards ceremony will take place on 1 December 2014 at the Imperial War Museum in London, so BU students will not have long to wait to find out if their project has won.

Nor Hazlin Nor Salam said, “The idea for ‘Muscle Memory’ originated from a fellow MA in scriptwriting, Neevon Daryan.  The story was first pitched to the MA Directing students in one of the lecture theatre as part of an academic requirement for the 2nd term. When I heard Neevon’s pitch for ‘Muscle Memory’, I was immediately captivated by the intriguing visual imagery that he briefly described in his treatment.

“I believe ‘Muscle Memory’ represents the consequence of war in a light-hearted and surreal manner and in all of this I wanted to communicate the absurd reality in the cause and effects of war and how it is often trivialised, misconstrued and sometimes overtly sensationalised by the media.”

More information about the Film Festival and the awards can be found on the Imperial War Museum website.