{"id":12772,"date":"2026-08-27T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/?p=12772"},"modified":"2026-08-20T14:47:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T14:47:26","slug":"learning-what-freedom-can-feel-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/learning-what-freedom-can-feel-like\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning What Freedom Can Feel Like"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>7 Minute, 12 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>

MOVIE REVIEWS
\nFarEye<\/strong>
\n –     <\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong> Drama, Short
\nYear Released: <\/strong>2026
\nRuntime: <\/strong>13m
\nDirector(s): <\/strong>Hayden Mclean
\nWriter(s): <\/strong>Hayden Mclean
\nCast: <\/strong>Djamari Roberts, Donisha Rita Claire Prendergast, Jeff Crossley, Jesse Royal, Antoinette Smith, Sydney Watson
\nWhere to Watch:<\/strong> shown at the 2026 HollyShorts Film Festival<\/p>\n

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RAVING REVIEW: <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>FAREYE is at its best when writer\/director Hayden Mclean stops explaining things and lets Khalil take in the world around him. The 13-minute short follows a Jamaican boy escaping an abusive home, but Mclean isn't interested in keeping him trapped within that trauma. His attention shifts toward what happens when Khalil encounters a community offering something his home doesn’t. Safety, music, faith, and the possibility that life could be formed by more than fear.<\/p>\n

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Djamari Roberts plays Khalil with very little need for dialogue. Much of the performance is built around observation, and Roberts is remarkably good at showing the difference between a child watching because he's afraid and one who is watching because he's curious. Mclean gives that transition time to set in, rather than immediately turning Khalil's arrival among a secluded Rastafarian community into a moment of salvation. He remains cautious, uncertain of the people around him and unsure of his place among them. Trust has to develop before anything resembling belonging can follow.<\/p>\n

FAREYE could easily have reduced Khalil to the abuse he's fleeing. We understand the conditions at home well enough without being repeatedly told about them, and the film refuses to make suffering its primary source of emotion. Khalil's past explains why he runs, but the story is far more interested in where he arrives. There's an important difference between making a film about escaping trauma and making one about discovering what exists beyond it, and Mclean clearly favors the latter.<\/p>\n

Jamaica itself becomes essential. FAREYE was filmed entirely on location with a predominantly Jamaican cast and crew, and the visuals that help shape the film don't portray the island as either a vacation destination or an unfathomable hardship. Cinematographer Joel Honeywell finds a Jamaica that feels expansive and closely connected to Khalil's changing emotional state. Rural spaces provide distance from the confinement of home, while the environment gradually becomes associated with discovery rather than escape.<\/p>\n

Mclean and Honeywell frequently leave room around Khalil instead of filling every frame with his face, allowing the surroundings to become part of what he's experiencing. That openness contrasts with the conditions he's leaving behind. It's an effective approach because the filmmaking doesn't have to tell us Khalil is beginning to see new possibilities. We can watch the world around him expand.<\/p>\n

Music carries just as much importance. The Rastafarian community isn't presented as an exotic destination where Khalil wanders in and receives an instant spiritual education. Rhythm, movement, conversation, and shared experience pull him toward something he doesn't yet understand. The Nyabinghi sequence becomes particularly important because it brings together the film's ideas about faith and community without separating them into a lesson for the audience. Mclean doesn't stop to translate every detail for viewers unfamiliar with Rastafarian traditions, nor does he force the characters to explain what their beliefs mean. The film trusts context, performance, and imagery.<\/p>\n

Jesse Royal appears as the older Khalil, an inspired bit of casting that connects the boy's encounter with this community to the person he may eventually become. Royal is primarily known for reggae rather than acting, and his presence feels particularly suited to a film where music and spiritual identity are so closely linked. Donisha Rita Claire Prendergast, Jeff Crossley, Antoinette Smith, Sydney Watson, and the rest of the ensemble help create a community that was there long before Khalil. These people don't exist because the protagonist needs rescuing; Khalil is stepping into a world that was already there without him.<\/p>\n

FAREYE's compact runtime inevitably leaves parts of that world unexplored. Thirteen minutes is enough to communicate Khalil's transition from fear toward belonging, though several relationships barely have time to develop beyond what they represent to him. The community feels authentic as a collective presence, but only a few are allowed to emerge. There are also moments when the nature of Khalil's journey becomes clearer than the steps connecting one stage to another.<\/p>\n

The film's reach occasionally exceeds the space available to it. Abuse, identity, Rastafarian spirituality, cultural belonging, childhood resilience, and transformation are significant ideas to carry through such a short narrative. Mclean avoids making the film feel overloaded by relying heavily on imagery. That same reasoning means the final stages of Khalil's transformation arrive quicker than the opening suggests. A few additional minutes could have deepened the transition without sacrificing the short's restraint. That also gives the film room to grow, if they decided to expand the story beyond these fragments.<\/p>\n

What keeps that compression from becoming a problem is Roberts; his performance supplies continuity where the screenplay sometimes has to jump forward. Khalil doesn't become a different child just because he has reached a safer place. Roberts keeps traces of hesitation in the character even as his body language changes, making the growing sense of peace feel gradual within a story that doesn't have much time to show it.<\/p>\n

Mclean's approach also benefits from his refusal to present healing as a matter of someone figuring out exactly how to fix Khalil. The people he meets give him space, examples, and community rather than a speech explaining how to overcome what happened at home. FAREYE understands that belonging can sometimes begin with being allowed to exist. For a child accustomed to chaos, that possibility may be transformative in itself.<\/p>\n

The specificity strengthens rather than limits the story. Mclean has made a Jamaican film interested in spirituality and Black identity without constantly looking outward to explain itself to an international audience. The characters, landscape, music, and faith aren't decorative elements added to a universal coming-of-age framework. They're the foundation of Khalil's experience. Audiences outside that culture are invited to enter the story rather than have it reshaped for them.<\/p>\n

That is one of the strongest signs of Mclean's growth as a filmmaker. FAREYE follows THE LAST DANCE in his exploration of Caribbean identity and community, but the visuals here are more meditative. Silence matters. Landscape matters. What isn't said often carries as much weight as what is. The approach isn't flawless, especially when the short's limited running time leaves some development implied rather than explored. There's a clear understanding of the story Mclean wants to tell and the perspective from which he wants to tell it.<\/p>\n

Khalil begins FAREYE trying to get away from something. Mclean wisely spends much more of the film considering what might give him a reason to stop running. That shift from escape to belonging gives this beautifully shot short its emotional impact, while Roberts' performance keeps the larger ideas tied to one child's experience. At 13 minutes, FAREYE leaves several areas that could support a longer story, but what reaches the screen is thoughtful, grounded, and genuinely hopeful without pretending that hope erases what came before.<\/p>\n

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[photo courtesy of SOUL REBEL PRODUCTIONS]<\/em><\/p>\n

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MOVIE REVIEWS FarEye  –      Genre: Drama, Short Year Released: 2026 Runtime: 13m Director(s): Hayden Mclean Writer(s): Hayden Mclean Cast: Djamari Roberts, Donisha Rita Claire Prendergast, Jeff Crossley, Jesse Royal, Antoinette Smith, Sydney Watson Where to Watch: shown at the 2026 HollyShorts Film Festival RAVING REVIEW: FAREYE is at its best when writer\/director Hayden Mclean stops explaining […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/img\/0367\/0367613.png","fifu_image_alt":"","iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t