Nekropolis Movie - Writers' Statement

Writers' Statement

We met in our first week of film school and immediately formed a friendship over the near-identical values we shared in movies. In the process of growing accustomed to each other and our own artistic motivations we discovered another similarity between us — something that remained hidden from almost everyone in our lives yet perpetually shadowed us like a demon: we both battled suicidal depression. And thus began a roughly six-year long journey to craft a story about battling such a demon...

Since the dawn of literature, writers have strived to put to tortured words what we were attempting to convey. We knew it was an important subject to explore, but we had no idea how far down the rabbit hole we would go. Other endeavors in writing, acting, directing, editing and art came and went, but this particular project remained an enduring presence in our lives. Its journey took us through many years of deep self-reflection, endless stretches of sleepless nights, intensive research on more than twenty books on the subject, heated arguments, periods of self-doubt — even the prospect of suicide itself. Yet beyond everything, our faith in and love for the story we continually pursued never waned — since, through our readings, talking to friends and relatives and observing society, it became clear we were working on something that was much larger than us. Everyone in our lives — even ones we never expected to touch — all shared a similar experience. What we were writing about became an apparently universal struggle. It all connected in a way. That empowered us to push forward.

It was perhaps a Herculean task to approach such a theme without it feeling contrived, and it's taken us a long time, but through the numerous "page one" rewrites and exhaustive tweaking, it was all a necessary challenge. We had no choice but to face these demons, needing to blossom both as individuals and as storytellers. Thereby the script grew as we grew and has undoubtedly changed our lives. After all this time we can confidently say it is ready to move forward; it has now satisfied our stringent goals, as well as taken on a life of its own. We set out to create a piece of art that is:

•    Affecting and emotionally satisfying in its journey;

•    Honest by being well-grounded and deeply personal;

•    Unconventional — a movie never seen before, both in focus of attention and in style; and

•    Challenging. Sometimes it may be necessary for a film to elicit feelings of anger, heartache or perplexity, but ultimately impart on you a new body of thought.

Nekropolis explores the darkest and most paradoxical side of human nature — not to sensationalize it, but for people to face it and reflect. Our aim was not to give answers but to raise questions. We feel it's critical for this taboo to surface. People need to know they’re not the only ones going through this — and that they should never give up.

This is our literary vendetta against suicide.

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