Breaking UP - A short film by Anne-Marie Agbodji.

It’s time to choose — or be chosen for.

ALT TEXt: Image shows a shattered hourglass.

An intimate, poetic, exploration of womanhood, autonomy and the cost of choosing oneself.

THE STORY

Breaking UP follows the story of Anna "Anoushka" Ooley, a millennial woman at a crossroads in her life.

Unable to ignore the haunting presence of Father Time and unwilling to surrender to the pressures to bear a child, Anna decides to end her nine-year relationship with Chris. Influenced by a self-help guru’s philosophy of “magical breakups,” the two embark on a series of separation dates across New York City.

Hoping to transform heartbreak into healing, they soon discover that the closer they move toward goodbye, the more their buried wounds surface— and the harder it becomes to let go. As Anna and Chris revisit the spaces that once defined their love—cafés, their shared home, and city streets pulsing with memory—Anna must confront Chris’s lingering hope for reconciliation, her religious Mother’s traditional expectations, and the suffocating weight of cultural and societal pressures.

Haunted by hallucinatory visions of Father Time, she faces her deepest truth: freedom comes with cost,

and self-determination exacts a price. The question remains: is Anna willing to pay it?

TONE

The tone of Breaking UP is emotionally resonant, intimate, heart-wrenching, bittersweet, melancholic, and nostalgic. We intend to evoke this through camera work, production design, color grade, and an original score.

COLOR PALETTE & LIGHTING DESIGN

Breaking UP uses color as a psychological map of Anna's interior world, guiding audiences through her emotional unraveling before a single word is spoken. 

Whites and yellows invite us into a life lived in stasis as these warm, angelic tones bath spaces that feel safe, familiar, almost holy. Yet it is precisely within these tender, domestic environments that the suffocating weight of expectation lives.

As Anna's journey deepens, purples and blues bleed into the flashbacks and surreal sequences, evoking the disorienting tension between memory and reality, between who she has been told to be and who she is choosing to become—reminiscent of how Barry Jenkins weaponized blue in Moonlight to externalize Chiron's longing and isolation without a single word of exposition. 

Finally, red consumes the frame during the final separation: not merely the color of danger, but of inner death—the necessary destruction of an old self before rebirth becomes possible.

Like in Jenkins's Moonlight, Breaking UP trusts color to carry emotional truths that dialogue cannot—inviting audiences to feel Anna's transformation viscerally, in their bodies, before their minds can fully process what they're witnessing.

THEMES

THE BIOLOGICAL CLOCK

An exploration of how the relentless ticking of the biological clock confines a woman’s potential, warping her sense of time, freedom, and self-worth — transforming deeply personal choices about family into a public, societal countdown.

RELATIONSHIPS

A probing look at whether love alone can survive unaligned life paths, and how conflicting desires around family building strain intimacy, trust, and the very foundation of a long-term partnership.

THE ARTIST AND HIS MUSE

An exploration of how artists transform grief into creation, and whether art can be used to hold on or must serve as an act of letting go. This theme interrogates the relationship between artist and muse, examining what happens when the person you love is inseparable from your creative practice — and how the loss of inspiration becomes both an artistic crisis and an opportunity for transformation.

RELIGIOUS, CULTURAL, SOCIETAL PRESSURES

An investigation into how religion, culture, and societal pressure constructs both comfort and control, shaping generational notions of womanhood and duty. This theme peels back the layers of inherited ideals of femininity, sacrifice, and motherhood — revealing how they collide with patriarchal forces to spark an internal psychological battle with profound emotional consequences.

THE CHARACTERS

ANNA “ANOUSHKA” OOLEY

A woman on the brink of transformation. Smart, empathetic, and self-driven, Anna is a rebel against family conditioning and societal constructs that define womanhood by motherhood. Haunted — literally and figuratively — by time and expectation, she dares to forge her own path, no matter the cost. Beneath her composure lies deep conflict: a yearning for freedom tangled with guilt, love, and loss.

CHRIS EVERRETT

An artist with a gentle soul and a heart that feels too much. Kind, patient, and diplomatic, Chris embodies both the tenderness and fragility of modern masculinity. As the breakup unfolds, he wrestles with acceptance, anger, and disbelief —clinging to the hop that love can outlast incompatible dreams. His emotional disconnect is not coldness, but self-preservation; a quiet defense against the truth he doesn’t want to face.

FATHER TIME

The embodiment of pressure, expectation, and inevitability. Part myth, part hallucination, Father Time personifies the societal “clock” that governs women’s lives — the ticking reminder of roles they are expected to fulfill. A haunting fusion of a celestial judge and a spectral reaper, he appears at pivotal moments, forcing Anna to confront her deepest fears and the weight of her choices.

WHY THIS, WHY NOW, WHY ME?

As the writer, director, and lead of Breaking UP, this film is particularly personal to me. Over the last decade I've zigzagged around intrusive questions and criticism around my biological clock, while undergoing treatment for endometriosis and related women's health conditions and quietly taking on several rounds of IVF. The words stung, the looks exposed, the questions shamed. I felt a deep frustration and seething anger—not just for me, but for every woman whose worth is measured by her womb. These moments of rejection, isolation, and not-enoughness crystallized years of frustration as a woman told who to be—wife, mother, caretaker—before being asked who she wants to be.

I realized that this experience was not limited to women who struggle with infertility like me, but to women in general, regardless of their personal choice or journey, as the world continues to tell us who and what we are supposed to be. Coupled with the dwindling right to control over our own bodies, I was inspired to write a story that explores the psychological effects of the biological clock and to place a different lens on the physical, emotional, and psychological pressures women face, and the ways in which they play an import role in women's wellbeing and mental health; and in the fight for bodily autonomy on a micro level. This film isn't an argument for or against having a family, not at all, it is however an argument for the right to choose and a reminder that choice always comes with consequence.

I wrote Breaking UP as a protest and a love letter to the woman at war with, and for, her own body. To those who dare to choose themselves, even when it costs them love and belonging, in a post–Roe v. Wade world.

-Anne-Marie Agbodji

WHERE WE ARE NOW

Breaking UP has been workshopped, developed, and is now in active pre-production. We're assembling our final department heads, refining the visual language, and building the infrastructure to bring this story to life.

The script has been met with enthusiastic response, and we're thrilled to head into production in September 2026! Our budget is finalized, several key roles have already been cast, and we're in the final stages of searching for our male lead. Our core department heads are secured—get to know them below!—and location scouting begins in the coming weeks.

BUDGET BREAKDOWN - $25,000

CREW - 45%: We cannot make a film without our crew. Every single HUMAN coming together to make this film deserves to be paid for their time and worth.

CAST - 12%: We cannot tell a story without actors leading the way. In alignment with SAG-AFTRA, Breaking UP is proud to be able to cast union talent!

EQUIPMENT - 12%: Top notch equipment ensures a top-notch film. But top-notch equipment can be costly!

LOCATIONS - 10%: Filming in New York City can be a pretty penny! We need several locations to bring this story fully to life.

INSURANCE & INCIDENTALS - 16%: To ensure the safety of all members of our team, we require insurance and a 10% emergency fund.

CRAFTY - 5%: The key to a successful production, is delicious food to keep everyone fueled.

OUR COMMITMENT

Breaking UP is built on equity — in front of and behind the camera:

• Fair wages: SAG-AFTRA production with full health & pension contributions. While non-union on crew, we are operating at union level! All crews wages are based on their average rates.

• Diverse crew: BIPOC, women, non-binary, and international cast and crew reflective of the world around us

• Real artistry: Live musicians and visual artists woven into the fabric of the film

• Human-made: No AI. Every frame, every note, every decision — made by people.

Please note: The images and visuals featured in this presentation are comps used solely for inspirational and illustrative purposes in conveying the creative vision of Breaking UP, and not the property of (k)nightingale studios. No copyright infringement is intended.