The Owls We Kill follows Faisir, an abusive husband returning home after being released from the precinct. Geralt, a young, skittish vigilante, steps out of the shadows and confronts Faisir over the abuse from the night before. Intent on physically retaliating against Faisir, Geralt quickly loses control of the situation when Faisir does something unexpected.

What follows is an explosive, aggressive fight between two men battling for their lives and their pride. An owl, whose presence follows them throughout the film, interrupts the fight and forces Geralt to decide who gets to leave the house alive.

At its core, the story explores what it means to retaliate against someone who has done something evil and asks a fundamental question: when do you know when you've went too far?

The Characters

Geralt (25), the protagonist, is a new vigilante driven more by anger than experience. Young, frightened, and carrying the scars of a man much like Faisir, he sees Faisir as a chance to balance the scales and return the pain he once endured. Geralt wants to punish Faisir and make him feel the weight of what he has done. What he needs to learn is that brutality cannot create meaningful change, and that moving forward means confronting his own past.

Faisir (47), the antagonist, is a successful New Jersey criminal defense lawyer who carries the confidence of the courtroom into every part of his life. The night before the film begins, years of emotional abuse toward his wife escalate into physical violence, leading to his arrest. The film begins the following evening, when Faisir is released and returns home, where he is forced to confront what happened the night before. Faisir believes everyone has blown the situation out of proportion and wants to return to the life he had before, but what he needs is to accept the harm he has caused and change before he hurts someone again. 

Having grown up with difficult circumstances, I’ve come to learn what it means to witness and experience violence. I’m of the lucky few where things got better and things changed. But of course, nothing stays the same once those boundaries are crossed.

I’m making this film to explore something meaningful to me and that’s morality. Most people in their youth and coming-of-age typically depict their transition into adulthood through standard life experiences that everyone goes through. While I faced my own personal challenges into becoming an adult, the foremost concern was choosing the kind of person I want to be. I found myself still bitter at the past. Many nights were spent awake, angry at the incidents I couldn’t prevent. This is not the person I want to be.

This story represents a lesson that I’ve had to learn growing up and it’s the very lesson that set me free from my experiences. While this story is set around Faisir and his actions, it’s very much a story about Geralt and the kind of decision he needs to make at the end of the film. It’s a decision everyone has to make eventually. And thankfully, with 3 years of writing this film to express my point of view, I can say I have.

This film is my coming to terms with my past and I’d love for you to see it.

Because nobody wants to sit through a philosophy lecture.

Within the thriller genre, we can tackle serious and intimate subjects inside a contained, fictional space. It gives us room to explore difficult images and ideas without misrepresenting reality or glorifying the people at the center of them. It also opens the door to metaphor, like the Owl, whose silent presence carries the film’s moral arguments without spoon-feeding it to audiences. That flexibility allows us to communicate complex ideas through tension, imagery, and atmosphere, all within the limits of a short runtime.

Below you’ll find a breakdown of our preliminary budget. Your donation would help pay for funding the production of the film. These resources enable us to do professional bruising and cut make-up, prepare actors for fight choreography, accomplish our practical effects and visual effects, pay for catering, crew, and much more! Please view the chart below to see the breakdown:

Any extra funds received beyond our financial goals will be spent into departments to expand their resources respectively. 

As a student production, we’re going to great lengths to practice industry standard workflows that you would see at a Hollywood level.  So much so that we’ve been proudly sponsored by JangaFX to use their fire and explosion simulation softwares! They’re responsible for a large number of amazing fire, explosion, and water simulation scenes in some of your favorite films and we’re very happy to be working with their programs to make our film come to reality. We’re working to incorporate their simulation softwares into our workflows for VFX and compositing.

Production Timeline

Pre-Production (January - September): We’ve been in pre-production for this film over the last year. We’ve had intensive development guided by professors at our university and we will continue to develop the project with their mentorship and guidance to elevate our story.

Production (October): Our shoot dates are locked within October. This is an optimal time to shoot for the production as the majority of cast and crew will be filming during our fall break from school, where we get to have the time to do our principal photography. The Owl will also be filmed on set during this time!

Post-Production (October - January): Editing will begin as soon as we finish our first shoot day and will continue until January. We have our deadlines with the university to complete the film by mid-December, but we’re buffering in an additional month to give our post-production team the space to put their best foot forward. 

Distribution: Once the film is finished, we plan to enter the festival circuit! Depending on your donation tier, you will get a private link to the completed film while it tours from festival to festival. Because our costs don’t include festival submission, any extra funds would go directly into our distribution fees to pay for festival submissions. We are also planning for an additional private screening for folks located in the GTA sometime in early 2027! Stay tuned for updates by following our campaign!

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Following our campaign is FREE and you'll be able to stay updated with The Owls We Kill. With more followers, we can receive festival fee waivers, products, and other services from Seed&Spark!

We also have a social media where we document the filmmaking process and teach you everything we’re doing to tell our story! Follow our Instagram and TikTok with the following username: @towkfilm

Pledge

We need to reach 80% of our goal to greenlight our project and keep the funds – so no pledge is too small!

Spread The Word

This story is for the thriller lovers. Tell your friends, family, coworkers and anyone you can think of! Any awareness you can bring to this film helps a lot more than you think, so please do share this with any folks you may know!

Here’s some messages you can copy and paste to share with folks!

• Hey! I wanted to share a short film some friends of mine are making called “The Owls We Kill.” They’re raising money to help bring the film to life, and any support, even just sharing the campaign, would mean a lot! 🦉🎬 towk.cargo.site
• Hey! I wanted to share “The Owls We Kill”, a student action/thriller currently raising funds for production. If you’re able to donate or share the campaign with someone who might be interested, I’m sure the team would really appreciate the support! 🦉🎬 towk.cargo.site
• My friends are making a short film! 🦉🎬 Check out “The Owls We Kill” and help support the campaign: towk.cargo.site

And most importantly,

Thank you for taking the time to read all of the way through. Most people don’t get this far, so as a thank you, please message us on our Instagram or contact us at our email [email protected], to claim a free digital wallpaper for your phone! 

And don’t forget, a simple follow on our pages would go a long way, so please do consider helping out! :)