‘The Yesterday’

Screenwriter - 2019-2020 London, U.K.

With provocative elements of surrealism and paranoia, von Sass’s often dreamlike visionary debut THE YESTERDAY is a love story steeped in psychoanalytic symbolism. Non-linear glimpses blur the line between reality and fantasy - a philosophical journey from disillusionment to self-love. Set to a predominantly rhythm guitar-infused score including both 70’s San Francisco sound hits and current hits by Chris Norman and Calum Graham, The Yesterday is a bittersweet ode to love.

In writing the screenplay for The Yesterday (2022) …

Director Statement:

The Yesterday is about loneliness, about seeking the deeper humanity within the human; about awakening real love and fulfilment beneath appearances, convention and form.

This film speaks to anyone who has questioned what really matters in life… money, stature, enjoyment at all cost? Hard work, loyalty, family? Or perhaps what is truly enviable lies much deeper…

I hope this non-linear film about perception and perspective inspires a conversation about the nature of love; about our experience of reality, imagination and time… and the interconnectedness of all influences - seemingly good and bad.

Synopsis:

A disillusioned successful businesswoman struggling to find meaning in her privileged life, finds unexpected love and is forever changed.

Two foreigners in London from differing backgrounds and ages find themselves in a love neither could have imagined. One is a young shopkeeper from India awaiting the arrival of his wife by arranged marriage; the other a mature, principled businesswoman from America.

The story is Josephine’s. A foreigner in London, she has struggled to find lasting contentment and joy. She has fought her way to worldly success, but something has kept her searching for a pure, indisputable inner fulfillment. Wherever she turns, her dismay with the world sees only exploitation and abuse.

The young Shopkeeper is likewise a foreigner. Educated and starting his life journey, he has arrived to seek a better life in England for himself and young bride. Working long hours tending a store, he follows all rules until he finds himself apprehended by love.

Neither could have known the unexpected fulfillment, realization and heartbreak to come.