THE MOON UNDER WATER - TRAILER
NRFF 2025 - BLOCK P
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1m 11s
Willow, a brilliant but emotionally fragile AI engineer, is devastated by the sudden loss of her partner, Aaron. In her desperate attempt to hold onto him, she does the unthinkable—she illegally downloads Aaron’s consciousness into an android prototype she’s been developing at work.
At first, the illusion brings comfort. The android “Aaron” looks like him, sounds like him, and even remembers the little things—like how she gives him the cherry off her ice cream. But beneath this veneer lies a growing instability. Willow’s grief-driven manipulation of his code begins to fracture the line between love and control, comfort and obsession. As reality catches up, her boss discovers the missing prototype and threatens legal action.
When the android begins glitching and questioning his identity, he uncovers a final hidden message—left behind by the real Aaron before his death. In an emotional encounter via AR, Willow is forced to confront her grief, denial, and the truth she’s been burying: that love cannot live in stasis. Through Aaron’s final words, she’s reminded of the beauty in embracing both the joy and the pain of love, and ultimately, the inevitability of letting go.
The film culminates in a quiet act of release: Willow returns to the real world, scatters Aaron’s ashes into a river, and parts with the last symbolic tie to her illusion. As she walks through a bustling street of London, a small but meaningful smile hints at the beginning of her healing.
Director - Hareekesh Anilkumar