Narrative

Genre: Romance
Runtime: 16'40
Completion Date: January 07, 2021
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Screening Format: 2K DCP, .mov, mp4 (HD)
Sound: 5.1 Stereo
Shooting Format: Digital, 1920*1080P, 24 FPS
Country of Origin: United States / France
Location of Shoot: New York – Manhattan (Upper East Side), Queens (Jackson Heights)
Language: English, French, Russian
Subtitles: English, French

Logline: A young man, like Narcissus, is so transfixed by his own image that he cannot reciprocate the love of others -- until an unexpected visitor provokes a transformative interior crisis.

Synopsis: Andrei is a loner, a manipulator and a narcissist. His defects threaten to wreck his relationship with Anastasia, who loves him. Then, a mysterious visitor appears on his doorstep. He peers deeply into Andrei’s soul, provoking a searing crisis of conscience that alters the course of his life.

Director’s Statement

I made Icon to extol the high value and significance of making a gift of oneself to another human being. I take this to be the point of life and the key to happiness.

Andrei, probably an actor, is the quintessential man-monad of our time. He is trapped inside himself. Transfixed, like Narcissus, by his own image, he cannot perceive the love of the person closest to him, let alone respond to it. He is on a path to loneliness and lovelessness, and to failing to fulfill himself as a man.

Through the timely intervention of an unexpected visitor, he comes to understand that he can only find himself by losing himself, by giving himself to another person. This means, first of all, interior conversion, or atonement, which we see him make in dramatic fashion.

The visitor says, “Let’s just say, I’m your guardian angel,” and then reads him the riot act. This is no sweet, bumbling guardian angel like Clarence in Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life; this is a smart, streetwise angel who peers into Andrei’s soul and insists that he change.

Andrei submits and atones. In so doing, the icon is no longer a decorative item or a cultural relic of his ancestral past gracing his living room. The icon becomes a living reality as Andrei images it, and in so doing, transcends himself.

Now he can image someone other than himself. So when Anastasia comes to the door, they image each other for the first time and their relationship is sealed.

The film echos the guiding philosophy of Peter Bailey, the founder of the Bailey Building and Loan in Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life:

“All you can take with you is that which you’ve given away.”

Anthony Devlin is an independent filmmaker and producer in New York.

He studied film and video at New York University’s School of Professional Studies. In addition to making dramatic and documentary films, he translates books and articles from four languages into English and is involved with grassroots efforts to improve New York’s transportation infrastructure.

CAST

Andrei Amarov as Andrei
Anastasia Belotskaya as Anastasia

PRODUCTION / CREW

Producers Andrei Amarov
Anthony Devlin
Writer / Director Anthony Devlin
Composer   Nikolaus Schapfl 
Cinematographer Anthony Devlin
Steadicam operator Denis Porvatkin
Editor / Sound Editor Anthony Devlin
Technical support Michael Gormley
Michal Zmigrodzki
Miguel Martillo
Ian Tracy

AWARDS

WorldFest-Houston (Winner: Best Romantic / Family)

Cyprus International Film Festival (Official Selection)

Rome International Movie Awards (Winner: Best Short / Best Actor)

Toronto Film Forum: Multicultural Film Festival (Official Selection)

Procida International Film Festival (Honorable Mention Laurel)

Miami Short Film Festival (Finalist: Best Short Film)

Fresco International Film Festival (Official Selection)

American Golden Picture International Film Festival (Honorable Mention Best Lead Actor)

Calcutta International Cult Film Festival (Winner: Best Short Film)

ICVM Crown Awards (Finalist: Best Short Film)