THE STOLEN (SHORT FILM)

Synopsis

Logline:

An imaginative young girl is granted a secret wish when she rescues a boy from her bullying

brother. Her wish comes true, but at a dark price.

Synopsis

A young girl (Essie) turns to the fantastical world of her imagination to escape her emotionally-

abusive home. Her father, a veteran, committed suicide after witnessing the horrors of war in

Afghanistan. Her older brother (Braden) is now lashing out with anger and violence at the world

around him.

One day, Essie oversees Braden and his friends beating a frail teenage boy (Sebastian) and

imprisoning him in a cage. Essie rescues Sebastian, telling him she is a fairy princess. When

Sebastian promises to grant her a wish, she discovers that he’s more than he appears. Her secret

wish comes true, but at a dark price.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild

With a faery, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand

- “The Stolen Child,” by William Butler Yeats

I have a deep love for fairy tales and mythology, and The Stolen is a direct reflection of these

influences.

The film began as part of a short story collection, loosely based on my favourite fairy tales,

retold in the form of dark, dramatic fiction. I was exploring narration and point-of-view and this

story was about Essie, an imaginative little girl whose fictional fairyland becomes manifest when

she rescues a fairy boy from a cave.

The “Modern Faerie Tale” series of young adult novels of Holly Black first introduced me to

fairies as Gothic creatures, who couldn’t touch iron, lived in a perpetual state of bacchanalia, and

treated humans as playthings. This was as far from Tinkerbell as I could imagine, and I

wondered if I could re-introduce fairies as a new form of monster for modern film audiences.

I also found research depicting fairies as fallen angels, cast out after the War of Heaven, but who

were not dark enough to enter the Gates of Hell. These fallen creatures are doomed to wander

our earth in a permanent state of purgatory. The crow and raven imagery emerged from reality

(the park where we filmed the short film is the pit stop/drinking hole for hundreds of crows every

day), and mythically, they are often seen as the guards between the living and dead. The idea of

fairies travelling as a dark crows was very appealing, like a Murder of Fairies.

When developing the backstory of Essie and her bullying brother Braden, I was influenced by

reading newspaper stories of recent veterans from the Canadian Armed Forces. Many of these

still young men have returned to “society,” broken by their experiences, but falling between the

cracks of our society. Young, vibrant men, mentally destroyed by their experiences, suffering

from deep depression, and finally resorting to violence, drugs, alcohol to deal with their internal

pain. Their experiences have a rippling effect, like stones in a puddle, on their spouses and

children, and on our entire society. We all pay the price of war, and the casualties are not only

the ones who’ve died overseas.

My films, usually in the form of horror and thrillers, seek to explore human fragility and

strength, against the social context of an increasingly thoughtless society that discards the fragile

and vulnerable.

BIOGRAPHIES

Karen Lam, Writer/Director

Karen has been a full-time producer since 2000, producing two

feature films, four short films, and three television series.

Highlights include: The Bone Snatcher (2003) was the first

Canada/South Africa/UK feature film certified under the South

Africa/Canada treaty. She produced the fourth season of The

Creative Native (2005) which received the Leo Award for Best

Information Series. She produced the short film Head Shot for

Dennis Heaton (2006), which premiered in competition at the

Berlinale Film Festival, and has won numerous awards at over

forty festivals to date.

Her first short film as a writer/director (The Cabinet) won the NSI Drama Prize in 2006. She has

since written five feature film screenplays, and directed her first feature film (Stained) in

November 2009, a BC/Saskatchewan co-production, which premiered as part of the Telefilm

“Perspective Canada” showcase at the Cannes Film Market. The feature is distributed by eOne

(Canada), and released in the US in August 2011 by Celebrity Home Entertainment. Karen’s

2011 short film Doll Parts has been invited to over 31 international film festivals since its

completion, and has won “Best Story” (Tulsa Underground Horror Festival) “Best Director”

(HorrorQuest), “Best Horror Short” (Midnight Black International Film Festival), and “Best

Horror Short” (Creative Arts Film Festival.) She was featured in the February 2012 edition of

“Fangoria” magazine as an auteur horror director “to watch.”

Karen Wong, Producer

Karen has worked in the Canadian film and television industry since 1993 as a financial advisor,

production accountant, and producer. Karen has gained a bird’s eye view of production on a

wide variety of programmes, firstly as a financial advisor and auditor with the boutique

accounting firm, Ellis Foster (now merged with Ernst & Young), and later as a production

accountant. She has overseen the finances on some of the most important British Columbia-

based productions in the last decade, ranging from Canadian independent films such as Kissed

and Rollercoaster, television documentaries such as Yukonna and Lilith on Top; to bigger budget

fare like Disney’s home movie franchises Air Bud and MVP; international treaty co-production

The Bone Snatcher and television series projects, such as CTV’s Robson Arms.

In 2003, Karen began line-producing the third season of a thirteen-part documentary television

series, The Creative Native for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN). She

continued as Line Producer for the fourth season, which was awarded Best Information Series at

the 2005 Leo Awards.

Karen’s first short film as a producer, The Cabinet, was the National Screen Institute – Drama

Prize recipient for 2006.

Karen is the Producer of the children’s series Mustard Pancakes which has been honoured with

several prestigious awards, including the Parents’ Television Council Award for Excellence in

Children’s Television. In addition to developing Seasons 4 & 5, she is working on expanding the

Mustard Pancakes franchise into a feature film. Also, in development are two feature film

projects, Covet and evANGELine, with Karen Lam.

Currently, Karen is producing her first feature film, Based on a True Fantasy, with

Writer/Director Lulu Keating.

Lilah Fitzgerald, Actor (Essie)

Eight-year-old Lilah has talked about becoming an actor-singer-dancer

since she could first form the words. Her first performances were as a

3-year-old at Silver Star Mountain Resort’s Silver Star Idol. Four years

later, it was clear that Lilah’s desire to perform was only growing

stronger, and in August 2010 Lilah signed with agent Carrie Wheeler

of Carrie Wheeler Entertainment in Vancouver.

Lilah booked her first actor role in January 2011, playing mean girl

Patricia Parkinson in the Lifetime movie biography of J.K. Rowling’s

life: Magic Beyond Words. At the end of her first day on a real movie

set, Lilah announced "I want to do that again tomorrow, and the next

day, and the next day ... and EVERY day for the rest of my life!"

Since then Lilah has appeared on the television series Hellcats and on the popular sci-fi show

Supernatural. Following a summer 2011 supporting lead role in the Lifetime Network's The

Pastor's Wife starring Rose McGowan, Lilah finished the year off with a lead role in The Stolen.

Lilah is currently loving spending her days filming with Benjamin Barnes, Jeff Bridges, and

Olivia Williams in Legendary Films' The Seventh Son.

Morgan Roff, Actor (Sebastian)

Morgan Roff is a young actor, just graduating high school, who has

worked on both stage and television, though this is his first short film. He

has been a guest star on Level Up and acted on ABC's popular drama

Once Upon a Time. Previous stage credits include Claude in Hair (PW

Secondary), Little Bob in Smile and Archie in 13 (Awkward Stage

Productions), Leon Tolchinsky in Fools (PW Secondary), and the Artful

Dodger in Oliver (Vancouver Playhouse).

Once at university Morgan will study engineering, however acting will

always remain close to his heart.

Sarah Lind, Actor (Fairy Queen)

Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Sarah is no stranger to the film and

television business. She won three Leo Awards for lead performance for

her work on the critically-acclaimed series Edgemont. She starred in the

made-for-television movie Selling Innocence with Mimi Rogers, and guest

starred in productions such as Psych, Reaper, Blade, Smallville and The L

Word. Her feature film credits include A Night for Dying Tigers, which

debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2010. Sarah starred

in Karen Lam’s short film Doll Parts, and her face has graced the programs

of over 22 horror film festivals.

Sarah is currently a lead in the second season of Steven Segal’s True

Justice, where she demonstrates her action-star moves.