Some Clouds don’t have silver linings

Embodying hurt and horror, black Clouds follow a young boy as he goes through his day.

A young boy wakes up and gets ready for school, pouring his own cereal and preparing his own lunchtime meal. He looks far too young to be doing this. He heads to school and a dark cloud follows him, hovering over his head, something constant and ominous, overwhelming him as he tries to pay attention in class, or to a classmate when she offers some of her lunch. He arrives home and we see the dark cloud seeping out from under a door - his mother’s bedroom. 

The ending is a sharp whip-crack. The boy walks into a dark, foggy room where his mother sits with a nurse, obviously in recovery. To portray cancer so directly and the emotional vulnerability associated with it as a black cloud feels simple and heart-wrenching. The pacing of the movie is beautiful and sad, and there’s not a second that doesn’t feel horrible, especially in hindsight. 

Directed and written by David Yorke, this feels like a labor of love and personal hurt. Deeply felt, Clouds is an unflinching metaphor for depression and trauma.