Embedded Files
Poster.
"I'VE DECIDED I'LL NEVER LISTEN TO JAZZ AGAIN."
In the dead of winter, a midnight visit filled with regret, Sammy and John sit separated by a door, reminiscing the memories of their relationship. As past wounds, both emotional and physical, come to light, they must confront the damage they've done to each other and decide whether forgiveness is still within reach — as seen through the neighbour’s window.
Sammy (Evie Kidd) and John (Byron Davies).
Filmed in April of 2025, Apartment Across The Street, was (and still is) a film that I hold onto and think of very dearly.
When my friend Ed first sent me the script in the summer of 2024, originally titled 'Troubled Nights', coming up with the vision for this film was a difficult yet deeply sentimental task. I was moved by the feelings and environment in which the script developed. Using jazz and music as an anchor, the story as a whole manifests on the happiness, regret, sadness, and nostalgia which derived from impressions of a time and place now gone. The story of John and Sammy, at its core, is a story of abuse. Throughout the story, John battles with the shame and fear interlinked with violence, as well as the clash of his remaining love as he tries to confront the trauma that Sammy has inflicted; and Sammy, though less obvious, continually fails to escape the trap that she has inherited from her family, painting the film as a cycle of never-ending violence passed down from families to lovers.
Very early on, the conflicting worries and questions of whether I am "the right person to direct this" was unavoidable. Being a film about domestic violence on male victims, I did not feel like I had any personal experience that can reflect onto this directly, automatically deeming myself as unfit for the role. In retrospect, I truly believe that this shouldn't have been a worry of mine, and feel as though I have a better understanding of the topic now at the time of writing this. Merely, there were many ways in which this story could be presented — as as a strong statement against female abusers or a commentary on the bigger issue of domestic mistreatment as a whole. Perhaps it would be good to portray a wider message — that you do not need to have been hit to be in an abusive relationship.
Directly after putting forward my director's pitch, a statement from the producer that was immediately given to me was "I think the victim should be the woman", and I knew immediately then that I needed to stay true to the original intention of the script . Upon further research, it is statistically proven that 'one in seven men suffer from domestic violence' and that 'only 49% of those men choose to talk about it' (Mankind Initiative). To remind the 51% that they aren't alone, it became important to state the idea of hidden domestic abuse and relationship conflicts that may not be obvious through the eyes on an outsider.
WRITER'S STATEMENT
When first writing this script, it was a challenge to push past the personal connection and transport that to the page. However, since finishing the first draft almost a year ago, I’m incredibly glad that this topic is being represented on the screen. I know I would have appreciated greatly having a film to relate to while dealing with it myself, and so in the writing of it I aimed to help inspire other victims to push out of their situation. But also to bring awareness to those that don’t know about the hidden domestic abuse of men.
Upon deciding that I definitely wanted the script to be made, I knew only one person would do this story justice, and that was Mya. She was the first person I opened up to about my experience, and her directing this was in fact my one condition with the making of the short film. And I couldn’t be happier with her approach to the film. She instantly understood it, and has brought such an incredible and immensely evocative interpretation of the script. I trust her with this completely, and I can’t wait to see the final product.
– Edward Rastall
With my love in the surrealist and experimental filmmaking, I wanted to create some sort of barrier that would wrap itself around the story and serve as a comfortable distance between the film and the audience. This was not because I was scared of saying what the film needed to say, but because, as it was, Troubled Nights was not an easy story to read, to listen to, or go through, and I wanted to allow the audience to feel immersed into the story, yet be able to remain purely as an observer through the course of the events that occur in the film. I wanted to combine elements of both digital filmmaking and the theatrical arts, and my take on the script was to place the primary scenes of the film in an apartment across the street seen without any walls or floors, providing a clear glimpse into the lives of its occupants.
The apartment complex.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
I've always been interested in the distance between what we experience privately and what the world is able to see. Coming up with the vision for “Apartment Across the Street” I thought about a feeling: the ache of loving someone even when love has become inseparable from harm.
Using jazz and music as an anchor, the story aims to shed light on the domestic abuse from a perspective that is rarely represented on screen — that of a male victim. Rather than centring violence itself, I was interested in the quiet aftermath, the shame, denial, longing, and nostalgia that make leaving an abusive relationship far more complex than simply walking away. I wanted memories to feel tactile and evoke the sensation of recalling a familiar room, a favourite song, or the lingering scent of someone who is no longer there. John and Sammy remain bound together not because their relationship was always defined by violence, but because they continue to mourn a version of it that no longer exists. Their attachment is sustained by the belief that happiness can somehow be recovered, even as it slips further out of reach.
The film also considers abuse as something that can be inherited. Violence is often cyclical, passed quietly from one generation to the next until it begins to resemble love itself. I was interested in portraying this cycle without reducing either character to a villain or a victim alone, but examining the emotional patterns that trap people on both sides of an abusive relationship.
“Apartment Across the Street” explores the question of what ties a person to a person. It is a story of hidden domestic abuse in its subtlety. I hope that by showing this film, despite in its abstract nature, it is able to leave its audience with an understanding that abuse is not defined solely by physical violence, and that those experiencing it (in whichever form) are not alone.
– Mya Akhina
[MORE COMING SOON.]
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse