A grieving young man discovers a way to travel to a parallel universe to locate his partner who was killed in an accident in writer/director Hamish Robertson’s LGBTQ-themed sci-fi short film A Trillion Miles West Of Bradford.

Filmed in sumptuous black and white, and opening with a smooth tracking shot of what looks like a small flat, A Trillion Miles West Of Bradford is an intriguing take on the often-used time travel scenario. Our protagonist Ricky (Craig Andrew Mooney) arrives in a flash of light at this clean and empty, yet completely lived in, flat and begins to mess with a device attached to his arm. He has travelled, we believe, through space and time to try and reunite with his lost love Adam (Chris Mcleish) who was killed in an accident several months previously. It was also at this point that I began to sense this film was actually something a little bit different. Robertson the screenwriter had managed to concoct a script that is so full of ambiguity, so full of vagueness, that it is possible to look at A Trillion Miles in a couple of different ways and this kept me on my toes throughout the runtime, creating an interesting film going experience.
It is obvious from the beginning that Ricky, with his wrist device and appearance in a flash of lights at Craig’s flat, is the traveller and this led to my main theory that it was his partner Craig who had died. However, as the film progresses, there is enough cleverness and uncertainty contained in Robertson’s script to suggest that Ricky could actually be the one who had died and is visiting from the afterlife. Although I felt I was overthinking the plot at times, these theories helped my enjoyment of the film while also giving it a re-watchability factor that I wasn’t expecting.

A basic two-hander chamber piece, the strength of the film depends on the strength of its lead actors to keep the tension taught, the stakes high, and the audience interested. There is very little dialogue in the first 8-9 minutes of this 22-minute short film, so we rely on a melancholy score by Jacob Aigner Reid that manages to move us, along with the facial movements of our stars to suggest what is going on. The cinematography by Jakub Sirkowski frames two fine performances using close-ups and two shots while also using a lot of singles of each actor by themselves surrounded by empty space, usually a blank wall or a large window. Each moment emphasises the emptiness and loneliness these characters have been feeling since their loss. Craig Andrew Mooney as Ricky has the more emotional role, managing to convey the grief and confusion of his situation, while Chris McLeish’s Adam is far more grounded, more accepting of the situation, and is the glue that manages to hold everything together.
An LGBTQ-themed film, sexuality is not mentioned or dwelled upon during A Trillion Miles West Of Bradford, yes they are partners and there are respectful nods to Brokeback Mountain but that is all they are, nice little touches that simply help with character development. This is a film about love and loss and, no matter who we are as people we all feel the same way about those who have gone before.

A Trillion Miles West Of Bradford is a mixture of sci-fi, romance, and mystery all wrapped up in 22 minutes and, thanks to clever direction and writing from Hamish Robertson, a film I found myself going back to again and again, just to try and figure out a definitive answer.
I never managed it.
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