In ‘Esmerelda,’ a young girl tries to find the real self inside herself. A continuous battle of will between what societies tell you to be, and you actually want to be. There is nothing more painful than pretending to be something you are not just because the social standards are asking you to act so. In every one of us, there is a puppet and a puppeteer, and most of the time, they are separate entities. The doll is the inner self, the mellow soul that is willing to do anything, and has the power to do everything that the puppeteer is asking. Still, the puppeteer is most of the time represented by society and the external forces of the others that affect us. When someone tells us to act in a certain way, and we do it, we let others maneuver our inner puppet soul. However, if we can find our power, we can master being our masters, and we can gain the ultimate authority. This is how we have interpreted ‘Esmerelda’ – a short experimental with a powerful message that lies in between the lines.

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The girl is becoming a woman; she is reaching inside her to take out the childish self, the controllable part that dominates us. When we are kids, we live the perfect life with no problems and nothing to distract us from the beauty of being loved. As the butterfly evolves from the caterpillar, the same way we develop from the puppet inside to become the perfect puppeteer. Jonathan Payne's ‘Esmerelda’ is a life story everybody should see, as it explains the transformation of the self in the most poetic and self-explanatory way. If you watch and understand this short film, it means you are ready to take the leap in your life!

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Written by Vlad A. G