Mia sits on the floor somberly as Jacob cooly hands her a box of Chinese takeout: it’s their second anniversary. In front of the camera, Mia and Jacob portray an underwhelming dinner that quickly devolves into Jacob verbally berating his girlfriend, in a powerful scene about domestic abuse. But behind the camera, RM senior, Norah Sonti, the film’s main director. 

“Truth Be Told” explores themes of love, complacency and abuse and the film strives for a realistic portrayal of its subject matter. It is striking and unexpected. The lighting, acting and direction, along with the fact that it is consecutive, filmed in one shot, makes the audience feel like a third wheel to the couple. Its message is a powerful one: that domestic abuse can happen to anyone and that the victim is never at fault. 

Sonti attributes some of her inspiration to “Perks of Being a Wallflower,” a film that explores many aspects of adolescence, like mental health, sexuality and coming-of-age. “Themes in [that] movie, y’know, themes that are relatable or are more realistic, I try to incorporate a lot,” Sonti said. She wanted to make the movie feel as real as possible. “This wasn’t my first time directing. I’m in IB film class, so I do have a little bit of experience, but this was the first time I was doing it more professionally.” Sonti says the access to professional equipment like cameras, as well as a mentor made the process much easier, and contributed to the overall success of the film.

“[My mentor’s] personal style kind of aligned with what I envisioned and it worked well and he helped me navigate how to communicate with the actors and really work on what I wanted to [get across] in this film.” 

What’s more, “Truth Be Told” won an award at the YellowHammer film festival in November of this year. “I was kind of shocked when we won the award because we submitted to a lot of festivals and we’re still hearing back, we’re still submitting to some, but when my assistant director texted me that we won, I was in class, actually, I was in school and I was like…this can’t…,” Sonti said. “I felt so lucky. It was for best acting and I feel like my actors just really played into their roles so well. I was so grateful.”