Locally filmed thriller ‘Hiraeth’ premieres at Tull Family Theater
Everyone has probably experienced something frustrating at work that makes them want to bang their heads against a table. Not everyone has the wherewithal to turn that sensation into art, though.
Xayne Allen wasn’t even a fullfledged filmmaker yet when in 2019 an idea for a feature-length project popped into his head after a particularly demoralizing day at his AT&T job. How he got from that feeling to an ambitious idea for a dramatic thriller provides a window into how the 24-year-old East Liberty resident’s mind works.
“I was like, ‘Well, why would someone bang their head off a table?’” Allen told the Post-Gazette. “Then I was like, ‘What if I saw someone get murdered?’ Then I just added on to that and it snowballed from there.”
That stream-of-consciousness concept has now come to fruition in “Hiraeth,” a locally shot film Allen wrote and directed about a teenager with complicated parental relationships who suddenly finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation. “Hiraeth” will have its world premiere Wednesday at the The Tull Family Theater in Sewickley. Tickets are available for the free screening via thetullfamilytheater.org.
Allen is a Clairton native who fixes phones for Asurion by day while he continues to hone his filmmaking craft. He has been writing since he was 12 and eventually taught himself how to format movie scripts.
“I really like the way you can make people feel with filmmaking, how you can change someone’s perspective on something, how you can introduce new ideas to someone,” he said. “Film is really universal ... and you can be introduced to a whole new culture. I really like the idea of that.”
Though he’s relatively new to the Pittsburgh filmmaking scene, Allen has written over 80 scripts so far and has “a whole bunch of stories just sitting there.” In 2020, he launched his web series “Spellbound” on YouTube. That’s where he met the local filmmaking talent he has continued to collaborate with on various projects, including “Hiraeth.”
In case you were wondering, “hiraeth” is a Welsh word without a direct translation that’s meant to evoke a sense of nostalgia and longing, especially for something that seems lost. Allen said the film’s original title was “A Man Named Malcolm.” But upon being told by a few folks that the name didn’t
match what ended up on screen, he began searching for a new title. He eventually came across “hiraeth” “and felt a really strong connection to it.”
“Hiraeth” was mostly shot in June and July 2021 in Riverview Park, East Liberty and West Mifflin. You might recognize some familiar sites — including the observatory at Riverview Park — but this movie doesn’t confine itself to one setting.
“I guess it could be taking place anywhere,” Allen said. “I was more focused on the characters. I wasn’t thinking about exactly where it was going to be. But I’m glad we shot here. In the summer, it was really pretty, with the leaves and everything. It came together really well with shooting here.”
Malcolm, the lead character, is played by Jack Raymond, a 21-year-old Wexford resident and Point Park University sophomore majoring in cinema production. He met Allen on “Spellbound” and, like a lot of that project’s cast and crew, “we’ve all been sticking together ever since.”
He said Allen is “a director who has a lot of vision” and a dry sense of humor who keeps his sets light but professional. Raymond was a little nervous at first about being the centerpiece of a film that deals so directly with sensitive issues like mental health, trauma and abuse. But he put his trust in Allen and everyone else involved with “Hiraeth.”
“Stories like this are pretty important to a lot of people who have gone through experiences similar to this,” he said. “This film deals with a lot of pretty heavy stuff. At first, it was a little daunting. But it worked.”
Raymond’s partner in crime was Marlo Martini, 23, of Robinson, who plays Malcolm’s new neighbor, Alice. The South Fayette native and Robert Morris University student met Allen when he cast her in a 48 Hour Film Project. Martini loves having such a close-knit group of filmmaking friends.
It’s “a lot more comfortable walking onto sets when you know everyone,” she said.
Martini said that Allen as a director is “not afraid to tell it how it is” while not hurting anyone’s feelings. He also tries to take care of everyone on his sets, like the time he started a small kitchen fire cooking burgers for the cast and crew while they were filming in the basement of his house.
“It really does take an army to make a movie, especially a movie with a very small budget,” she said. “Seeing the whole product finally come together, it’s very emotional in a sense because you see everything you all put into it.”
Ideally, “Hiraeth” will be screened at a few festivals before ending up on a streaming service this fall, Allen said. He and his team are gearing up to make their next feature, “Unbroken,” which Allen wrote but will not be directing. He hopes that anyone who comes to the “Hireath” premiere at the Tull will realize how much passion and care this group of creatives put into everything they do.
“I feel like this movie is a journey,” he said. “It’s definitely something that so far has moved people. I hope it will move more people if you see it on a big screen with us.”