“You should not talk to or make friends with strangers and never eat anything any person who is unknown to you offers.” This is one of the mandatory warnings that probably every one of us might have received as kids. To an extent, we were also cautious enough to avoid any conversation with strangers.
However, talking to people who travel with you becomes a daily affair as we grow older. But, giving a detailed thought to the warning that our parents used to give us makes us aware of the danger that lies in getting friendly with strangers. The six-minute short film Black Sheep, which has crossed 66,000 views in just four days, deals with something similar and narrates the story of a college-going girl who was attempted to be kidnapped by a woman travelling with her.
A team of movie buffs was discussing various incidents and current issues happening in their area when such a topic popped up and the team decided to use the logic behind the true incident to make a short film. Nandhu Unnikrishnan, who works as an assistant director in Mollywood, and a few of his friends – cinematographer Neeraj Ravi, editor Thushad Chathanoor and scriptwriter Pratheesh – made Black Sheep almost a year ago for a short film competition organised by the Youth Welfare Board. However, as the film was a little longer than the prescribed time, they had to wait. Meanwhile, the group decided to release it on YouTube.
Elaborating more on the story that Black Sheep narrates, director Nandhu says, “Till we uploaded the short film on YouTube, it was just like any other incident to us. It got our attention only because it happened in our hometown. However, the messages and comments that followed surprised us. People started sharing their views and similar experiences as well and we, therefore, got to know the severity of the situation. We are glad that we could make even the slightest change.”
Black Sheep is a zero-budget short film, which is a team effort of a few friends who received helps from their acquaintances in the film industry to complete the project. The actors, too, are people living nearby Nandhu’s home and volunteered to do it for free.
