"Talk Away the Dark"

25 May 2023

2 mins 12s

Light relief.

Vincent René-Lortie directs this slow-burning ad for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, as deaths from suicide rise again in the country. The man at risk is a middle-aged father who, despite his daughter's best efforts, refuses to open up.

Her concern grows with each visit: he's distracted at the dinner table; gets rid of his beloved guitar for no reason; and cuts himself from the outside world as much as possible. When he promises to call his friend Henry, she knows he won't.

It would be easy to give up and let the darkness consume him (René-Lortie and DP Olivier Gossot bathe the entire ad in a familial gloom, as if the house is still in mourning for someone). "It's been a tough couple of months," he says, but much is left to the imagination.

Conversations like this are always hard, but they also shed light on the situation before any harm can be done. We leave father and daughter in a better spot than they were before, with concerned viewers urged to follow her example.

USA

Charities