The Kilometre of Forgetting
A woman stares out at the relentless Canadian Shield, the passing rock and spruce forcing an inventory of a life she chose and the one she left behind at a dusty crossroads.
# The Kilometre of Forgetting
**Format:** Short Film / Anthology Episode | **Est. Length:** 10-12 minutes
## Logline
On a long-haul bus ride through the Canadian wilderness, a widowed woman’s journey into her past forces her to confront a fractured memory, revealing that the life she believed she was pulled into was actually the one she secretly engineered.
## Themes
* **The Unreliability of Memory:** Explores how memory is not a perfect record, but a curated and often distorted narrative we construct to protect ourselves.
* **The Illusion of Escape:** Examines the idea that changing one's location does not change one's fundamental self; we carry our burdens and desires with us.
* **The Architecture of Regret:** Delves into how past choices, especially those born from youthful ambition and fear, quietly shape the entire structure of a life.
* **Agency and Self-Deception:** The tension between the choices we actively make and the stories we tell ourselves about who was in control.
## Stakes
At stake is Sharon's ability to accept the truth of her own agency and find peace with the life she built, rather than continuing to live under the weight of a comforting but false narrative.
## Synopsis
SHARON (68) sits on a Greyhound bus, the familiar smells of diesel and chemical blue triggering memories of a lifetime of taking this route. The monotonous landscape of the Canadian Shield—rock-cut, muskeg, forest—is a hypnotic blur she uses to erase thought. She reflects on her late husband, BEATON, who hated the bus, preferring to "feel" the country. For Sharon, the point is precisely *not* to feel.
A specific slant of late-afternoon light triggers a vivid memory: a picnic with a young, charismatic Beaton. In this recollection, he is the restless one, skipping stones and lamenting the quiet emptiness of their hometown, promising her a life of motion and excitement in the city. This memory has formed the bedrock of her life story: that he pulled her away from a home she might have otherwise stayed in.
But as the journey continues, this comfortable narrative begins to fray. The reality of the quiet, subdued man Beaton became clashes with the memory of the ambitious youth. Looking at her own aged reflection in the darkening window, Sharon is forced into a deeper introspection.
The memory shifts, revealing a sharper, more uncomfortable truth. She recalls her own youthful panic, her desperate fear of becoming one of the small-town women with their limited lives. She remembers that it was her voice, firmer than his, that insisted, "We have to go." She was the engine of their escape, the architect of the life she later felt trapped by. He would have likely stayed.
As this realization dawns, she notices a small, star-shaped crack in the bus window. It fractures the passing landscape into a dozen distorted pieces, serving as a perfect metaphor for her own splintered memory. She understands she has only been seeing the pieces that fit her preferred story.
The bus pulls into a brightly lit station for a fifteen-minute stop. The doors hiss open, offering a brief escape. But Sharon remains in her seat, paralyzed by her revelation. She chooses to stay with the ghost in the window—her reflection superimposed over a landscape she no longer recognizes, finally confronting the woman who made the choice and the life that choice created.
## Character Breakdown
* **SHARON (68):** A woman whose face shows the map of a long life. Initially, she presents as a passive observer, someone who has been a passenger in her own story. She is introspective and carries a quiet melancholy, using the motion of the bus as a shield against uncomfortable thoughts.
* **Psychological Arc:** Sharon begins the journey believing she was a reluctant participant in her life's major decisions, led away from her rural home by her restless husband. By the end, she undergoes a painful but profound internal shift, realizing she was the primary architect of her life's path. She is forced to confront her own buried ambition and fear, trading a comforting lie for a complex and unsettling truth about her own agency.
* **BEATON (seen in flashbacks, 20s-60s):** The husband, existing only in Sharon's shifting memories. In the first flashback, he is charming, poetic, and filled with a dramatic restlessness—the man who wanted more. In the context of Sharon's final realization, he is re-framed as a man who was perhaps more grounded and content than she allowed herself to remember, his supposed ambition a projection of her own.
## Scene Beats
1. **THE PASSENGER:** On a Greyhound bus, the smells and the monotonous northern landscape lull Sharon into a state of reflective numbness. She remembers her husband Beaton, who hated this passive way of travel.
2. **THE FIRST STORY:** A flashback, triggered by the light. A young, vibrant Beaton skips stones across a lake, passionately arguing for a move to the city, away from the "nothing" of their town. This memory establishes Sharon's long-held belief that he was the catalyst.
3. **THE CONTRADICTION:** The bus lurches, jolting her. She contrasts the memory of the young dreamer with the quiet, diminished man Beaton became in his later years. The promise of the city feels hollow.
4. **THE REFLECTION:** Sharon stares at her own aging face reflected in the darkening window, superimposed over the passing landscape. The image prompts a deeper, more honest line of questioning about her life.
5. **THE REAL STORY:** A new memory surfaces, sharp and undeniable. She sees herself, young and panicked, looking at the limited lives of the women in her town. She hears her own voice, firm and decisive, telling Beaton, "We have to go." She was the one who pushed.
6. **THE CRACKED LENS:** Her eyes fixate on a small, star-shaped crack in the window. She watches the world outside fracture through it, understanding it as a metaphor for her own memory—a damaged lens that has distorted the truth for decades.
7. **THE ARRIVAL:** The bus pulls into a brightly lit, sterile gas station in Dryden. The doors hiss open, offering a physical break. The other passengers disembark. Sharon remains seated, motionless, choosing to stay with the uncomfortable truth and the ghost of herself in the window.
## Visual Style & Tone
The visual style will create a strong contrast between the claustrophobic, intimate interior of the bus and the vast, cold, and impersonal Canadian Shield landscape outside. The window is the central visual device, used for reflections, framing, and as a barrier between past and present. Flashbacks will be shot with a warmer, more saturated, and slightly dreamlike quality to represent the gilded nature of memory, while the present-day scenes will be stark, with cool, naturalistic lighting.
The tone is meditative, melancholic, and deeply introspective. It aligns with the quiet character studies seen in films like **Chloé Zhao's *Nomadland*** or the works of **Kelly Reichardt**, where the external journey mirrors a profound internal one. The sound design will be crucial, emphasizing the constant, low hum of the bus engine as a hypnotic drone, punctuated by sharp, intrusive sounds (a baby crying, the hiss of brakes) that jolt Sharon back to reality.
**Format:** Short Film / Anthology Episode | **Est. Length:** 10-12 minutes
## Logline
On a long-haul bus ride through the Canadian wilderness, a widowed woman’s journey into her past forces her to confront a fractured memory, revealing that the life she believed she was pulled into was actually the one she secretly engineered.
## Themes
* **The Unreliability of Memory:** Explores how memory is not a perfect record, but a curated and often distorted narrative we construct to protect ourselves.
* **The Illusion of Escape:** Examines the idea that changing one's location does not change one's fundamental self; we carry our burdens and desires with us.
* **The Architecture of Regret:** Delves into how past choices, especially those born from youthful ambition and fear, quietly shape the entire structure of a life.
* **Agency and Self-Deception:** The tension between the choices we actively make and the stories we tell ourselves about who was in control.
## Stakes
At stake is Sharon's ability to accept the truth of her own agency and find peace with the life she built, rather than continuing to live under the weight of a comforting but false narrative.
## Synopsis
SHARON (68) sits on a Greyhound bus, the familiar smells of diesel and chemical blue triggering memories of a lifetime of taking this route. The monotonous landscape of the Canadian Shield—rock-cut, muskeg, forest—is a hypnotic blur she uses to erase thought. She reflects on her late husband, BEATON, who hated the bus, preferring to "feel" the country. For Sharon, the point is precisely *not* to feel.
A specific slant of late-afternoon light triggers a vivid memory: a picnic with a young, charismatic Beaton. In this recollection, he is the restless one, skipping stones and lamenting the quiet emptiness of their hometown, promising her a life of motion and excitement in the city. This memory has formed the bedrock of her life story: that he pulled her away from a home she might have otherwise stayed in.
But as the journey continues, this comfortable narrative begins to fray. The reality of the quiet, subdued man Beaton became clashes with the memory of the ambitious youth. Looking at her own aged reflection in the darkening window, Sharon is forced into a deeper introspection.
The memory shifts, revealing a sharper, more uncomfortable truth. She recalls her own youthful panic, her desperate fear of becoming one of the small-town women with their limited lives. She remembers that it was her voice, firmer than his, that insisted, "We have to go." She was the engine of their escape, the architect of the life she later felt trapped by. He would have likely stayed.
As this realization dawns, she notices a small, star-shaped crack in the bus window. It fractures the passing landscape into a dozen distorted pieces, serving as a perfect metaphor for her own splintered memory. She understands she has only been seeing the pieces that fit her preferred story.
The bus pulls into a brightly lit station for a fifteen-minute stop. The doors hiss open, offering a brief escape. But Sharon remains in her seat, paralyzed by her revelation. She chooses to stay with the ghost in the window—her reflection superimposed over a landscape she no longer recognizes, finally confronting the woman who made the choice and the life that choice created.
## Character Breakdown
* **SHARON (68):** A woman whose face shows the map of a long life. Initially, she presents as a passive observer, someone who has been a passenger in her own story. She is introspective and carries a quiet melancholy, using the motion of the bus as a shield against uncomfortable thoughts.
* **Psychological Arc:** Sharon begins the journey believing she was a reluctant participant in her life's major decisions, led away from her rural home by her restless husband. By the end, she undergoes a painful but profound internal shift, realizing she was the primary architect of her life's path. She is forced to confront her own buried ambition and fear, trading a comforting lie for a complex and unsettling truth about her own agency.
* **BEATON (seen in flashbacks, 20s-60s):** The husband, existing only in Sharon's shifting memories. In the first flashback, he is charming, poetic, and filled with a dramatic restlessness—the man who wanted more. In the context of Sharon's final realization, he is re-framed as a man who was perhaps more grounded and content than she allowed herself to remember, his supposed ambition a projection of her own.
## Scene Beats
1. **THE PASSENGER:** On a Greyhound bus, the smells and the monotonous northern landscape lull Sharon into a state of reflective numbness. She remembers her husband Beaton, who hated this passive way of travel.
2. **THE FIRST STORY:** A flashback, triggered by the light. A young, vibrant Beaton skips stones across a lake, passionately arguing for a move to the city, away from the "nothing" of their town. This memory establishes Sharon's long-held belief that he was the catalyst.
3. **THE CONTRADICTION:** The bus lurches, jolting her. She contrasts the memory of the young dreamer with the quiet, diminished man Beaton became in his later years. The promise of the city feels hollow.
4. **THE REFLECTION:** Sharon stares at her own aging face reflected in the darkening window, superimposed over the passing landscape. The image prompts a deeper, more honest line of questioning about her life.
5. **THE REAL STORY:** A new memory surfaces, sharp and undeniable. She sees herself, young and panicked, looking at the limited lives of the women in her town. She hears her own voice, firm and decisive, telling Beaton, "We have to go." She was the one who pushed.
6. **THE CRACKED LENS:** Her eyes fixate on a small, star-shaped crack in the window. She watches the world outside fracture through it, understanding it as a metaphor for her own memory—a damaged lens that has distorted the truth for decades.
7. **THE ARRIVAL:** The bus pulls into a brightly lit, sterile gas station in Dryden. The doors hiss open, offering a physical break. The other passengers disembark. Sharon remains seated, motionless, choosing to stay with the uncomfortable truth and the ghost of herself in the window.
## Visual Style & Tone
The visual style will create a strong contrast between the claustrophobic, intimate interior of the bus and the vast, cold, and impersonal Canadian Shield landscape outside. The window is the central visual device, used for reflections, framing, and as a barrier between past and present. Flashbacks will be shot with a warmer, more saturated, and slightly dreamlike quality to represent the gilded nature of memory, while the present-day scenes will be stark, with cool, naturalistic lighting.
The tone is meditative, melancholic, and deeply introspective. It aligns with the quiet character studies seen in films like **Chloé Zhao's *Nomadland*** or the works of **Kelly Reichardt**, where the external journey mirrors a profound internal one. The sound design will be crucial, emphasizing the constant, low hum of the bus engine as a hypnotic drone, punctuated by sharp, intrusive sounds (a baby crying, the hiss of brakes) that jolt Sharon back to reality.