In ancient Greece, Greek God Hephaestus is sent to secure the bonds on the imprisoned Titan Prometheus. There he learns about the history of the Titans, his father, and his future on Mount Olympus. 

At the centre of all Greek myth is the idea of a cursed cycle. Before Zeus declared himself king of the gods, he had to murder his father, Cronos in order to free his godly brothers and sisters. Cronos, with his dying breath, cursed Zeus to die by the hand of his own descendants, in the same way Cronos himself did. That cycle, that threat of ever present hereditary doom, hangs over Olympus through all of the Mythology. To put it simply, at the root of all Greek Myth lies a story about trauma, more specifically trans-generational trauma, and that is what I wanted to focus on with this story. 

The story focuses on two characters from Greek myth, Prometheus and Hephaestus. One, punished for betraying the gods, the other cast out by them only to return to them after he’d proven himself useful. While these two characters never interacted in any major way in the original mythos, the parallels between them fascinating. Both of them have been punished by the gods, scorned by them, and yet both of them deal with it in different ways. Hephaestus yearns for his Father’s approval while Prometheus rejects the gods outright.
 

These characters may be gods, larger than life, but their conflicts and emotional struggles are fundamentally human.
 

Strip away the godly historical setting and what sits at the core of DESMÓS is a story about two people trying to deal with their trauma; whether it be past or present, which is something that I think speaks to a timeless audience despite its classical setting. 

Gwen Rathbone is a Writer and Director who has been selected for film festivals such as Outreels Cincinnati LGBT+ Film Festival, London Rocks Film festival and Brighton CineCity Film Festival.

Director’s Statement

“When setting out to write this story, I wanted to make sure that there was something real within it. I felt that where most modern adaptations of Greek mythology fall short is that they lose sight of the emotional weight of these stories in favour of grandiosity and spectacle. I wanted to avoid that, and so I had to make sure the story came from somewhere personal to myself. I make it no secret that I, like many others, have felt the effects of generational trauma; pain passed down from a father or mother, passed down to them by their own parents, going back through a family history. Now more so than ever before, we as a global community are beginning to understand the effects of this trauma and how it passed down to us and how we in turn might pass it on to those who come after us. While DESMÓS may be set thousands of years ago, that aspect of it is unmistakably relevant to the world we live in today.“

Lauren L Cissé is a Writer/Director/Producer of many successful short films such as 'Losing Teeth', 'Do I know you from someone?' and' which have also been selected respectively for Cinecity Brighton Film Festival - in two separate years. Her recent film  '17‘ details themes of sexual assault in a raw 14 minutes that were debuted at London Rocks Film festival and screened at Lift-Off Film Festival, Hastings Rocks and Focus international film festival.

Lauren aims to produce films that say something different and disrupt the system, but needs the generosity of strangers to help her with this goal.

"Less than 5 per cent of disabled people work in the UK film industry."

DISABILITY STATEMENT

Desmos aims to be an inclusive production. With neurodivergent people making up a large proportion of the creative industries, we want to have an accessible production with measures taken to safeguard our cast and crew. The industry standard of 16 hour work days is not a viable option for those with disabilities and neurodivergence. We want Desmos to be an inclusive production that runs on smaller work days for a longer period of time to ensure the health and well-being of all cast and crew.

Where is your money going?

We all know making films is hard and there is a lot to consider such as Cast, Equipment hire, Location hire, insurance, costumes, music… so that being said every penny of your pledge will be used to ensures the smooth running and attainment of goals, so that this film is made and made well! 

But for assurance here is a breakdown on how our budget will be spent:

From the crew of ‘Do I Know You From Someone’ and ‘17’.