Ani

One night Ani’s parents have a terrible fight that leads her mother to leave the house.

When Ani wakes up the next day she is unsure of what to do. Her father burns and buries her mothers clothes in the garden in his grief. Ani makes herself breakfast while her father sobs at the table next to her.

Ani stops going to school. She drifts through the house, disconnected with her father and still in her pajamas from the night her mother left. As Ani starts to process what has happened she makes up fake conversations, imitating her mother and claiming she’s “sick of the shit”.

Ani’s father burns the food he tries to cook for his daughter and is unsure about how to care for his child. One day Ani slips while playing on the washing line and gets a blood nose. Her father puts her in the bath and in his guilt for not watching his daughter he starts to clean up the burnt clothes in the garden.

The phone starts ringing and this time Ani is alone and she answers it. There is silence on the other end. Ani is convinced it is her mother – asking repeatedly “Mum, are you there? Are you lost, Mum?”. Giving up on her phantom mother, Ani makes her way to the back step and finds her father sitting alone. She puts his arms around him and they both look out across the garden. She knows mum is not coming back.