TERMINAL: B
TERMINAL: B is dark comedy short film exploring death and rebirth set against the perennially stylish backdrop of mid-century airline travel. The transition between death and rebirth is the most liminal space that exists so that liminality is depicted in the form of an airport and plane voyage. The “Terminal” in the title suggests life itself is a terminal condition. The “B” refers to existential beingness.
Elizabeth TABISH, star of hit series The chosen as “THE PASSENGER”
TERMINAL: B is a two-hander scripted for a pair of female talents. The lead character, “The Passenger,” is the one who takes the journey we all must take in death– like Orpheus in the underworld. The supporting character, “The Stewardess,” is the one who facilitates the journey– the archetypal “ferryman” ushering souls to the underworld.
The airport code displayed throughout the short film is “TBD” suggesting passengers’ final destinations (or souls’ new incarnations) are “to be determined.” The abbreviations also stand for Tibetan Book of the Dead from which the concept of a soul traveling from one life to another is based. Far from being a morbid look at the subject, TERMINAL: B shares the book’s transcendental attitude that death is just one more journey a soul must take.
Set in 1968 to draw parallels to our own turbulent political times, we open in an airport terminal where THE PASSENGER, an assassinated politician, wanders confusedly. A departure board indicates her gate so she walks through a jet bridge towards a bright light at the end of the tunnel.
She boards the plane. After take-off, The Stewardess plays an in-flight movie which are fragments of The Passenger’s recent life. Turbulence in the cabin occurs when The Passenger clings in attachment to that life.
The Stewardess helps her finally reconcile that she must let go of that life as the plane descends and she deboards as her new life begins.
KAIMAN KAZAZIAN AS “THE STEWARDESS”
In a film about leaving the sensory world behind, TERMINAL: B’s production design presents as many lush sensory experiences that sight and sound will allow in twelve minutes–from period sets and costumes to experiential sound design.
The pacing mimics that of a dream: beginning in placid surrealism before ramping up to a fever dream pitch approaching nightmare. An eventual catharsis via soundtrack music brings the pacing to a resolution.