Piercing The Vale

In our world with the ever-present promise of invasive AI bearing down on us, The Vale – Origins acts like a comforting balm. Based on the novel by New York Times bestseller Abigail Hin Weng, who also serves as writer and director of the short film. The Vale – Origins stars Tony Award winner Lea Salonga (known for being the singing voice of Disney’s ‘Mulan’ and ‘Jasmine’) and Robert Palmer Watkins (The Walking Dead) as the inventor parents of Bran (played by newcomer Egan Xander), whose vivid imagination inspires his parents’ career.

After suffering a family tragedy, Bran’s parents fall into a depression and creative slump whilst their young son escapes into his own magical world to combat the loneliness caused by his (understandably) distracted parents. Bran continues to build his fantasy world, one watercolour painting at a time. He even creates an ethereal companion for himself by the name of ‘Gnomly’.

We get snapshots into Bran’s world with the clever use of 3D animation. The animation softens the edges of a tragic situation and gifts us an immersive experience of Bran’s inner world. When Bran’s parents finally surface from their depressive states, they are confronted with evidence of Bran’s creative and emotional outlet, his room covered with paintings of Gnomly. Inspired, the family embarks on training an AI model into “something coherent”. With the use of a motion capture suit and helmet, the parents tell Bran that: “it’s your world, make it whatever you want.”

The film’s timely narrative use of AI might liken the film to a modern fairytale but it also embodies the comfortingly familiar trope of transforming pain into art and innovation. Bran’s virtual reality world would not look out of place in an Enid Blyton storybook but is also accessible to modern audiences.

Egan Xander plays an excellent conduit to the virtual reality world with his dark, inquisitive eyes. Despite being the young actor’s first production, he is able to expertly embody a character with a rich internal life and a stoic front. Bran does not physically cry, yet we can feel his sadness through the screen, impressive for an actor so young. Egan holds his own performing next to veteran actors.

It’s no secret that there is a frustrating trend of modern films being poorly lit, flat with (a somewhat depressing) liberal use of grayscale. The Vale rebels against this trend, utilising sun-drenched shots with clearly defined shadows. It’s a breath of fresh air and helps to maintain the film’s optimistic tone despite its harrowing narrative framework of familial tragedy and AI.

The Vale – Origins is an excellent introduction to a world where VR meets the universal power of a child’s imagination.

⭐⭐⭐⭐