Of Games & Escapes (2011) 

Director: Bevan Klassen
Year: 2011
Duration: 77m
Language: English

Patrick wants to change the world. Environmentally conscious and creatively driven, he rides a scooter to his dead-end sales job and by night designs board-games with meaning.

Patrick appears to have a happy life outside of work but spirals into depression when his desires to do good fall short. Turning to the power of pharmaceuticals to boost his productivity, his way through the world goes radically off his aspirational map.

Of Games And Escapes charts Patrick's mental journey in four chapters, presenting different frictions and opportunities that arise in his interaction with other characters and the mind-sets they represent. These form a carefully crafted structure inspired by the transformational theory of human psychological development call Spiral Dynamics, developed by psychologist Clare Graves, who observed that through "the interaction of external conditions with internal neuronal systems, humans develop new bio-psycho-social coping systems to solve existential problems and cope with their worlds."

Beneath the surface of its quiet concern with ordinary life, Of Games And Escapes is a compelling micro-budget drama, using video to deft effect in its sophisticated rendering of an everyman's dark struggle to make sense of his place in the world.

…high compliments from the award-winning director [Guy Maddin] set the bar quite high for this debut feature, and audiences will not be disappointed with this story of struggle.
Kayleigh Ayre, uniter.ca

AWARDS AND SCREENINGS
Gimli Festival 2011

REVIEWS
http://ofgamesandescapes.com/reviews