princes of melancholia
Narrative Short Film · Mexico · 37 min
Narrative Short Film · Mexico · 37 min
Synopsis
After the loss of someone deeply important to him, a young man retreats into silence, routine and an increasingly unstable inner world. Carrying only a small reminder of the person who is gone, he moves between waking life, memory and recurring dreams as grief begins to reshape his perception of reality.
Told through fragmented imagery, surreal interludes and an extradiegetic female narration, príncipes de la melancolía explores the strange persistence of love after absence and the difficulty of living with a loss that offers no clear resolution.
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About the film
príncipes de la melancolía began as a personal exercise in trying to understand grief at a moment when loss felt difficult to name or process. Rather than approaching it through a conventional narrative, the film developed through dreams, repetition, everyday rituals and fragmented voices, allowing waking life, memory and imagination to gradually bleed into one another.
Music became an essential part of that process. The project was particularly shaped by the work of mehro, whose songs gave form to emotions the filmmaker was struggling to articulate. The film takes its title from princes of melancholia, from the album Dark Corners and Alchemy, while music from Trauma Lullabies also became part of its emotional landscape.
Developed over several months of writing, filming and editing, the film became less an attempt to explain grief than to inhabit it: its confusion, repetition, guilt, tenderness and the strange persistence of love after someone is gone.
Ultimately, the film was created in the hope that someone experiencing a similar kind of loss might recognize something of themselves in it and feel, even briefly, less alone.
Stills
Music & the Film
The music of mehro is woven directly into the structure of the film, functioning as an emotional thread through the protagonist’s states of isolation, memory and altered perception. Songs from Dark Corners and Alchemy and Trauma Lullabies accompany substantial portions of the film and became central to the way the project approached grief.
The film takes its title from mehro’s song princes of melancholia. The project also incorporates documentary material filmed by Pavel Rosas during a mehro performance in Mexico City, including a reflection by the artist on personal loss. By allowing this real testimony to enter the film’s fictional world, the closing sequence creates a bridge between an imagined experience of grief and one that was lived.
Artist Response
After watching the completed film, mehro reached out to Pavel to comment on its visual work and ask about the scenes and images he felt most connected to during its creation.
Credits
Written & Directed by Pavel Rosas
Produced by Pavel Rosas
Cinematography by Pavel Rosas
Edited by Pavel Rosas
Sound Design by Pavel Rosas
Produced by Pavel Rosas
Cinematography by Pavel Rosas
Edited by Pavel Rosas
Sound Design by Pavel Rosas
Narrator — Beatriz Rueda
Japanese Voice — Tatsuki Garcilaso
Japanese Voice — Tatsuki Garcilaso
Music — Selected songs by mehro from Dark Corners and Alchemy and Trauma Lullabies
Literary References — Excerpts from Dune by Frank Herbert
Film Info
Príncipes de la melancolía
Princes of Melancholy
Princes of Melancholy
Mexico · 2024 · 37 min
Experimental Narrative Short Film
Color & Black-and-White
Independent Production
Experimental Narrative Short Film
Color & Black-and-White
Independent Production
Written, Directed, Produced, Shot & Edited by Pavel Rosas