Director: Warren Fischer
Stars: Dylan Brown, Renata Friedman, Ellen Mah
Synopsis: A young violin prodigy is manipulated and pushed to her psychological breaking point by the composer she adores.
As a neurodivergent person, it always matters to me how the different individuals and manifestations of the spectrum are portrayed on screen. When I received The Serena Variations, I didn’t know what to expect, but what I watched, certainly exceeded any expectations I could have had.
The Serena Variations is director Warren Fischer’s short debut. It is a tale of undiagnosed neurodivergence, brilliance, and talent. It is also the director’s homage to his mother and his relationship with the violin. This is a difficult film to watch if anyone is a neurodivergent artist and has struggled with their diagnosis. But it’s worth it. In one of its strongest moments, it elevates the feelings and focuses on one woman’s sanity and her grip on her art, as she goes on a hallucinogenic-induced trip. The sequence is stunning, visually appealing, and tremendously thought-provoking.
Undiagnosed neurodivergence is a serious issue, one that has to be handled with great care in terms of dramatic adaptation and artistic expression. But our modern society carries the burden of lifting the stigma associated with it so that more people find it in them to see proper diagnosis and acceptance. After such a diagnosis, coming to terms with oneself is never easy. However, when done correctly, it is a moment of freedom.
This film is all about the danger of music. Art is never an easy route nor is a plane on autopilot navigation. Artists are usually lost sailors adrift in an unpredictable sea. Fischer’s film captures that sensation perfectly through a psychedelic palette and spectacular camerawork that enhances the senses. Through his direction, the audience is allowed inside the protagonist’s mind, within the corners of her heightened sensory reception. In a way, it feels like a portal into a magical world that only Serena can access.
Dylan Brown as Serena steals the show. The director hasn’t only cast a neurodivergent actor, but he excelled in the casting process. Brown is not simply a representation of the role, but a true-to-the-bone artist, her eyes tell a million stories, and her portrayal of Serena is both chilling and exciting.
How Serena interacts with fellow musicians is another major theme, how artists evolve around each other, using one another for leverage, an anchor, or to bring each other down. Artists revel in their self-possessed state of existence, even if it comes at the expense of everything they meet in their wake; loved ones, careers, even their sanity.
The film carefully builds a world that otherwise seems foreign to neurotypicals. In Fischer’s hands, the otherwise mysterious neurodivergent experience appears familiar and inviting. It features a Requiem for a Dream-ish augmented reality that works because it comes from a place of truth and honesty. It’s rare to find a film that captures what goes on in a mind constantly in conversation with itself. However, in this short, the director succeeds to a great extent in creating a livable alternate universe where delirium and brains coexist, at odds but cohesively creating a violin solo piece that pulls on the strings too hard.
The Serena Variations is all about the call of the artistic sirens, how a love for the arts can be the road to perdition, to losing grip on the creative process itself. But it’s also about how painful and beautiful the act of losing oneself to the art is, how self-obsessed artists are, and how rewarding their selfishness can be.
