Nobody caught in a war walks away from it unchanged, and it’s usually the families who pay the steepest price. R.L. Lyone’s short film Snow Colored Ashes asks a simple question: when everything is taken from you, is faith enough to keep you standing?
A father wakes up in the ruins of his village after a catastrophic attack that leaves a giant sinkhole in the center of town. Everything he knows is gone. He is mortally wounded, and in his final moments, he’s forced to watch his son die just before he does.
He’s not the only father searching the wreckage. Gaholek Nahurne (voiced by R.L. Lyone, who voices every character) receives an urgent audio message from his wife, Tahlira, telling him he must find their daughter, Anira, before it’s too late. The journey to find her comes with an uneasy feeling that the worst is yet to come.
“A father wakes up in the ruins of his village after a catastrophic attack that leaves a giant sinkhole in the center of town.”
R.L. Lyone’s Snow Colored Ashes is a haunting essay on death and faith. She says it’s “an exploration of how families endure the unthinkable during times of war.” Lyone has built a dark dystopian world using generative AI. We can endlessly discuss whether AI is good or evil, but as AI films go, Lyone’s imagery and action are quite impressive. It’s no doubt AI, but scenes linger longer than in other AI shorts I’ve seen. The consistency of characters and locations holds from start to finish. The tragedies of war in a small town are on full display, and you may forget for a moment that this world on the screen existed only in the mind of an AI.
The story centers on death and family during war. We see two vignettes of fathers trying to reach their children. Lyone prepared the right prompts and selected the right scenes to make a major emotional impact. At just over six minutes, Snow Colored Ashes will stay with you for a while.
For screening information, visit the Snow Colored Ashes official website.
