The thrill of the sci-fi genre has morphed in recent years, to not only highlight how ever-evolving technology is altering humanity in a physical sense, but also within their emotions and moral consciousness. That evolution is highlighted in the new film, ‘Aporia,’ which was written and directed by Jared Moshé.

The drama is a deeply moving heartbreaker of speculative science fiction, penned with palpable love for its characters and plot through honest, earnest empathy. The captivating movie is largely free of pessimism despite its tragedies, as it raises provocative and timely concerns about how technology influences grief with complex emotional depth and tension.

‘Aporia’ had its World Premiere on Thursday, July 27 at 6:50pm ET at the Salle J.A. De Sève theater in Montreal during the Cheval Noir section of the Fantasia International Film Festival. The drama then had its second festival screening the following day, Friday, July 28 at 1:00pm ET, also at the Salle J.A. De Sève theater. The movie is now playing in theaters across North America, courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment.

In ‘Aporia,’ Sophie (Judy Greer) has struggled to manage crippling grief, a full-time job as a nurse and the demands of parenting her devastated teenage daughter (Faithe Herman) since losing her husband Mal (Edi Gathegi) in a drunk-driving incident over the past year. But the single mom is given a second chance at happiness when her late husband’s best friend Jabir (Payman Maadi), a brilliant former physicist, reveals that he has been secretly building an experimental time-bending machine for the past few years that could restore her former life.

Sophie understands that by taking a chance on bringing her husband back to life, the moral and physical consequences will be entirely unforeseeable. It’s an impossible choice for her to make, but also a lifeline that’s all but impossible for her to resist.

Moshé generously took the time last month to talk about scribing and helming ‘Aporia’ during an exclusive interview over Zoom from Montreal, on the afternoon of the film’s premiere screening during Fantasia. Among other things, the filmmaker discussed what inspired him to pen the script; what the process was like of creating the look of the family’s home and the time machine; and what it means to him that the drama had its World Premiere at Fantasia.

The conversation began with Moshé explaining what inspired him to scribe the script for ‘Aporia,’ and what his writing process was like while he was crafting the plot. “The story came from two different ideas at once. I had this idea for a gun that murders people in the past for a long time, and I had no idea what to do with it. So it was just kind of sitting in the back of my head,” he revealed.

The filmmaker went on to shared that when he was prepping the 2017 action Western he penned, directed and produced, ‘The Ballad of Lefty Brown,’ “my son was born. When he was then turning one, it occurred to me that I was being faced with this new world, as I had this new person I had to take care of. The world suddenly felt a lot scarier and more uncertain. I was trying to wrestle with that uncertainty, and figure out how to deal with it and balance it.

“That idea of trying to control uncertainty was something that I wanted to explore through a story in a film. As I was trying to figure out how I could do it, that idea from the past came back up. So I thought, what if I use that to tell a story about someone who’s trying to regain control of their life, and find a way to get back to the family norm that they’re used to, and the reproductions of that?,” Moshé also divulged.

The filmmaker then delved into how writing the feature’s script influenced his directorial style once he began shooting the project, and what his overall helming style was like on set. “This project was quite a journey. We were set to try to make this movie in February or March 2020. Then COVID hit and the film fell apart, and we had to put it back together,” he revealed.

“So there were so many starts and stops. We were looking for different financing partners and work around their availabilities,” Moshé continued. “So when we finally came together to make it, we thought, gosh, this is actually happening.

“That gave us a lot of time to think about the actual project, and allowed me to talk about it with my team,” the director noted. “Then when it came time to direct it, we knew what we wanted to achieve, in terms of its look and feel. I was able to convey that to my production designer, DP and production team,” Moshé added.

“We shot it in L.A., which was important to me. I wanted it to feel as though it takes place in a part of L.A. that we don’t normally see,” the filmmaker revealed.

“What’s interesting about it when we were location scouting, we were looking all over to find a house that could work. When I decided that I wanted to tell the story in L.A., I thought, this is going to be cool – we can call in favors!,” Moshé recalled.

“But then we remembered that L.A. is really expensive to shoot in! So we couldn’t find a house,” the helmer divulged.

“Going back to my son, I was at his Tee-ball game, and there was another family there that I had become friends with. They were telling me they were going away during our shooting dates. So I was like, ‘Hey, do you guys want to make some money in your house while we’re shooting?,” Moshé shared with a hint of a laugh.

“They said yes, so we ended up shooting around the corner from my house. We ended up involving people from the neighborhood. We also shot scenes in the rec center near my house where we go all the time and play sports,” the filmmaker divulged.

“So it became a strangely personal event while we were shooting it. It was really wonderful and a fun experience. It was a fun shoot, despite masks and COVID, and all of the scary side of it,” Moshé admitted.

Following up on the fact that the drama was shot in locations in his community, the director also explained how he worked with the feature’s production design team, including on the time travel machine. “I’ll talk about the production design in two different parts. My production designers were this great team of Ariel Vida and Kati Simon. They’ve worked together before, and often times, Ariel was the production designer, and Kati was the art director. So this was one of the first opportunities for Kati to also work as the production designer,” he shared.

“So Kati’s job was the realities. So she and I mapped out what were the realities in the world we were creating, how it could change emotionally, and how we could show those emotional changes in the world that we’re creating,” Moshé shared.

“So she had her team that we worked with on things like choosing little knickknacks. We also discussed how dirty the kitchen was in different worlds, which was something that was really important to us, as well as how the furniture was arranged,” the filmmaker recalled.

“We worked on the little changes in the world in which Mal is dead. Everything stops for Sophie, so when a lightbulb would go out or a lamp would stop working, she wouldn’t want to get rid of it because she was trying to hold on to those feelings of the past,” Moshé explained.

“In the world where Mal’s alive, they fix the little things. They change the lightbulbs and threw out the broken toaster and got a new one. There are little things that give you the sense that life is moving on. So that was what Kati and I were working on,” the helmer disclosed.

“Then Ariel was in charge of the machine. I wanted the machine to be very unassuming. I wanted it to be the most powerful machine in the world, but look like it was made out of junk in an apartment you would never give a second look at when you were walking by,” Moshé explained.

“My biggest direction to Ariel was that I wanted it to look like a fire hazard. I wanted it to look like when you turn it on, it’s going to burn the apartment down,” the filmmaker continued.

“What she did when we were creating the look was go to junk yards and prop houses and find junk. She also found stuff in her shed, which is full of junk, like old, ripped apart juke boxes, and pulled it all together,” Moshé continued.

“She sent me ideas about what would work and what wouldn’t. She then made this machine that looks like this monstrosity that inhabits the room, but also looks like it’s going to burn down your building,” the director added.

Following up on the fact that ‘Aporia’ features several different time periods, Moshé then delved into how he worked with the cast on building the story and their characters within each period. “We tried to schedule the movie’s shooting schedule based on the story’s chronology as best as we could. That way, the actors could understand their emotional realities in each time period, and what their characters knew and didn’t know, rather than jumping back and forth. I felt that if we didn’t, that would lead to confusion and be difficult in their performances,” he noted.

“Before we started shooting, I sat down with each actor individually and walked through the script with them. We talked through each scene and their lines. We worked to make sure it was really clear what their characters were feeling, and how using the machine would change what they were feeling,” the filmmaker continued.

“Also, we worked on what the characters were feeling emotionally, based on the different worlds and what their realities are. There are times that the character don’t realize they’ve changed, and the actors have to play things slightly differently,” Moshé shared.

“I felt like getting everyone on the same page before we started shooting was really key. I wanted to make sure that we had a real open dialogue. Anyone could bring up a question, as I like to keep my sets a little free-flowing. But it was a fast shoot; we shot this movie in 17 days,” the helmer divulged.

“At the same time, the actors could come up to me and ask a question and talk about stuff. Really, anyone could talk,” Moshé noted.

“What I think is really special about this project for me was that a lot of the crew read the script. Usually just the department heads read the script, but a lot of the crew read it and knew it. So the key grip might come up with something, or the gaffer might say something. So I tried to make the set an open space where people’s voices could be heard,” the filmmaker added.

Moshé then delved into what his collaboration with ‘Aporia’s cinematographer, Nicholas Bupp, was like in determining how they would visually shoot the feature. “This is the first time that Nick Bupp and I worked together, and it was an incredible experience and collaboration. He and I spent a lot of time working through the story,” the director shared.

“We didn’t want the cinematography and camera movements to change that much between the time periods. We wanted it to feel hand-held, a little loose and rough around the edges. That way, we could give it a sense that this was happening,” Moshé emphasized.

“You could be walking down the street, and this incredible machine could be behind a building that you never thought would be there, and this crazy story could be going on, and you just never knew it. So we wanted the cinematography – and overall film – to have that kind of feel,” the filmmaker explained.

“Then we talked about how we wanted the colors to express the emotion of the world. So we started with a blue vibe in the beginning, and then when Mal came back, the color palette shifted a bit. So we wanted the colors to show the emotion of the characters more than anything because to me, it’s about conveying what the characters are feeling, so that they could create an emotional connection with the audience,” Moshé added.

As ‘Aporia’ had its World Premiere at Fantasia last month, the helmer shared that he was “so excited to be sharing the movie with audiences at Fantasia. Everyone (there was) so exuberant about the film, which is lovely. I’ve never been to Fantasia before, but I’ve always heard that it has some of the best audiences. You can tell that people (there) really love movies, so I (was) happy that everyone (was) able to see it at the festival.

“At the same time, it (was) a little bittersweet that we (premiered) the movie at a time when the AMPTP strike (which is still ongoing, prevented) our actors from being (there) to support it by refusing to give them, as well as writers, a fair deal. I (was) excited, but I also wish that I (could) celebrate with everyone,” Moshé also solemnly noted.

After the feature’s premiere at Fantasia, the filmmaker expressed that he’s also excited that the project has received a theatrical release. “Well Go USA, which (released) the film, has been an incredible partner during the entire journey of getting the film to the screen. You can tell that everyone there loves the film, and have been so gong-ho about getting it out in theaters, which is so cool. It’s hard to get films in theaters these days, so the fact that they’re putting it out in theaters, so that people can see it on the big screen, is exciting,” he concluded.