Summary

All that goes before forget is an experimental short film about traumatic memories and flashbacks caused by PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). The film is composed of three fragmented stories that depict a young girl in postwar Norway, a Japanese schoolgirl during World War II, and an androgen person in their twenties in a contemporary domestic setting. These three individuals belong to very different places and eras, and their stories are interwoven with a voiceover—the voice might belong to one of the characters on-screen, or all, or none. Scenes are depicted with close-up images, which alludes to a certain level of significance, as if they were hinges to memories, but the overall narrative remains tantalizingly elusive. Based on personal accounts of surviving trauma, the film uses fiction as a form for speculating about those events that might define a life, while simultaneously defying our ability to narrate them.