Featured image credit: Andrew Cutcliffe

We chat to writer / director Harry Windsor about THE MOST WONDERFUL DAY

What inspired you to create this production?

I spent Christmas Day by myself a couple of years ago, and it was a slightly eerie experience. Walking through the empty streets of Sydney’s inner city, where I was living at the time, felt almost apocalyptic. As though everyone had just vanished overnight. Returning from a trip to the convenience store, I saw a man and a woman sitting in a car, exchanging gifts in a nondescript parking lot. They clearly weren’t going anywhere, and something about the location—and the fact it was Christmas— seemed incongruous, somehow. That image stayed with me and became the film’s opening scene.

What challenges did you face in creating this production?

The usual: finding the money, convincing talented people to sign on, and trying to find the right balance on the page; to be clear without over-explaining. And Covid, of course.

What are you hoping audiences will take away from watching this film?

The challenge of this short was conveying a mood—an ephemeral sense of dissatisfaction­—without supplying readymade answers about why, exactly, the lead character is feeling the blues. It’s easy in the narrative to want an explanation to hang your hat on, but it’s rarely just one thing, in my experience. And I wanted to try to capture that feeling.