A tragic man desperate to die fights against the affections of an emotionally charged woman until her love shows him how to live again.

SYNOPSIS:

it’s a non-linear story that begins in 2040 when we first meet ATHENA - late 40s. A palpable sadness hangs over her as she wheels her suitcase into her classroom, as she takes in the sea of apathetic students. RUSSELL, 20s, a trying Gen X’er (or whatever they’re called in the future) digs into her as she delivers her latest dry lecture, pushes her to reveal why she’s so miserable all the time. And, for whatever reason, she tells them - withholds nothing - about the great love and loss of her life.

2020. Athena and her cousins EDWARD, late 20s, and his sister SCARLETT, 24 drive to their family home in a village in British Columbia. Later that night at the local pub, Athena and Scarlett catch up while Edward spies the room, his garish charm seeing him chasing after a bartender. When he doesn’t get the attention he wants from her, he turns to Athena, grossly comes onto her. But as always, she has no interest in Edward - can’t even fathom the playful insinuations that she’ll be his wife one day. Put out by yet another refusal, he leaves the girls in search of a sure thing. Their conversations are interrupted by the entrance of ERFAN, the mid-30s as he stumbles in with two dogs in tow. Athena watches the brooding man as he takes a seat at the bar, as he downs one shot after another, chain-smoking. Her attraction to him - while indiscernible - is instant.

Unclear of the whys, the frantic need to see him, Athena drags Scarlett out to the pub again with the hopes of catching a glimpse of her moody stranger. He eventually arrives, and this time, she takes her courage up to the seat next to him and painfully tries to engage in conversation. But he’s not having it; he has no interest in this meddling woman who nags him to stop smoking. Their interaction ends with her spilling her beer on his lap, and him storming out.

Athena’s mission to complete her thesis sees her exploring the woods on horseback one day. The gentle calm of quiet nature turns into subtle chaos when a mountain lion suddenly comes upon her. Terrified, she begs it to leave, but it’s the echoing pang of a gunshot that scares it off. The shock of the blast knocks her off her horse. She hits her head on the way down, and blacks out.

She wakes in a strange home, her head bandaged. She finds Erfan down in the kitchen; he feeds her before walking her back towards her own house, his kindness masked by jeering condemnation. He has no interest in her thanks and completely disregards her request that he be her forest guide. And yet, while there’s no obvious inkling of interest, Athena maintains that they share a special bond.

Day after day, Athena returns to Erfan’s cabin, determined to become his friend, and then some. Outwardly, he continues to display his disinterest, but something within him begins to change, a softening perhaps. This becomes more apparent when Athena - a terrible swimmer - has an incident in the lake and is rushed to the hospital. Hearing about her accident, Erfan slips into her room while she’s sleeping and leaves a bouquet of roses. Scarlett tells her about his secret visit, the admission further cementing her newfound love for him.

Breaking down his hard exterior is no easy feat, but slowly and surely, he begins to let her in. Athena has no qualms about expressing her feelings - her love that knows no bounds - while Erfan continues to withhold his affections. All she wants to know is that his heart is hers, as hers is his. He wants to give that to her more than anything, but he’s stuck in his past, riddled with guilt and haunted by the ghosts of his dead wife JEANNE and two young daughters DIANE, 5 and SHANIA, 6.

As his relationship with Athena gently flourishes, Erfan’s pulled deeper into a manic cycle of visions - waking nightmares - tumultuous flashbacks that distort his memory.

We move back in time with him, to 2006 when he first met and fell in love with Jeanne. We see them in their lives together, their happy marriage and growing family. We’re thrown into crude illusions where his children taunt him, where he puts their lives in various circumstances of gratuitous danger.

We see him coming out of an eight-month coma in 2016, his parents SARA and TOM at his side, messengers of bad news: he was in an accident with his wife and children, and only he survived.

We continue to move through time, track his destructive decline, feel his depressive desires to leave this earth and join his family in whatever ether they float in. His steady emotional and physical deterioration brings us back to his life with Athena in 2020, pulls us into his slow resolve of the past, and relinquishing of guilt. Like Athena, he feels a magnetic "something" for her - both proving to be a saving grace that neither knew they needed or wanted. And as realization dawns on him, that their togetherness is the path they're meant to take, Erfan finally allows himself to buy in completely.

At Athena’s request, Erfan quits smoking and schedules a doctor’s appointment in Vancouver. Years of abuse and neglect have weakened his heart and the only repair possible - outside of love - is surgery. For the first time since he lost his family, he’s finally able to think about the future and he’s never been more certain that Athena is a big - if not the biggest - part of it.

While away, ego-driven Edward assaults Athena, waves a gun in her face as he threatens with an ultimatum: not only will she have to marry him if she doesn’t give him two million dollars by her birthday - to secure his share of the family inheritance - but he’ll kill Erfan too if she doesn’t deliver.

Desperate for Erfan to return, Athena can’t focus on her birthday or the lavish party that her mother throws for her. All she wants is for her love to come home, to spend her special day with him and him alone. But Edward makes a scene before their reunion when he proposes to Athena in front of all her guests. Disgusted, she shrewdly denies his hand and storms out. Whispers hang in the background until a fireworks show lights up the sky and drowns out the gossip. And as if divinely crafted, Erfan appears before her, dressed in a tuxedo, cleanly shaven and on bended knee. Her engagement ring is barely on her finger when a shot - followed by another - rings out. Shocked - terrified and furious - Athena holds a dying Erfan in her arms as Edward looms over them with his smoking gun.

2040. The classroom is completely silent, the student’s barely breathing as Athena finishes recounting. Russell doesn’t hesitate with his apologies, but she’s not interested. She’s not done yet; her story doesn’t end here.

She unzips her suitcase to reveal the one thing that Erfan left for her, his last and final promise that no matter what happens between them, he will always belong to her., the greatest gift she's ever known, eternal love. what could be her gift?

BAGGAGE