Kairath is an action-packed dystopian film that takes place in a distant-future earth that has been abandoned by most of humanity. It's filled with complex emotional themes, intricate character relationships, and elaborate world building.

Most of humanity lives in space colonies, and those that remain on Earth must fight to survive. With elite corporations and powerful guilds controlling the Territories of the United States, it’s a dog eat dog world. Taren Vesper, a former member of the Mercenary Guild, lives alone on an isolated plot of land near the southern border of the Northern American Territory.

Completely secluded from society for the last twenty years, when another mercenary attempts to assassinate him, it forces Taren into the throws of a plot to murder him and every human no longer living on Earth. And the biggest twist? His late wife, dead for the last twenty years, just might actually be alive. Taren’s mission: Find his wife if she's alive, and save humanity. But at what cost?

To really help create the visual identity of the world Taren lives in, we will be shooting in January of 2027 in the state of Oklahoma. With the visual variety of landscapes and locations this state provides combined with the time of year we will be filming, we will be able to create a strong, abandoned world for Taren to journey through.

Kairath - A decision point so heavy with consequence that it feels divinely charged, as if God himself is watching to see what you choose and judging you for it.

At its core, Kairath is a film about learning how to grieve. You don't just get better with time, you have to deal with it, face it head on, and find closure. Then, you can heal.

My name's Elijah Felkins, and I'm the writer and director of Kairath. We began working on this film in July, 2025. I was just off the heels of my soon to be award-winning 48-hour short film, The Freedom Fighters. I knew it was good (didn't know it was going to win the competition) but I was confident in my team's work and wondering what was next for me creatively as a filmmaker. I've made a lot of short films, and they're fun.

But I, along with some of my mentors, felt that it was time for me to finally make a feature film. Thus was the beginning of THIS journey to create Kairath.

With that being said, Kairath is not simply a movie that I'm making for the sake of making a movie. That's how it started out, but very quickly I learned that was, in fact, a sure way to fail. Making a movie for the sake of making a movie and nothing else results in heartless, unfulfilling art that can barely be called art.

When I began, I wasn't trying to say anything with this film. I didn't really have any connection with the film outside the surface level, "I'm gonna make a movie!" That resulted in two months of writer's block, stuck on page 5 of a script that I already had an entire story outline written for, but I couldn't get past page 5.

When confronted with this writer's block (not an unfamiliar scenario for me) I had to contemplate exactly WHY I was making this movie. What is my connection to this film? What is my connection to this main character? Why is this my story to tell? After all, I don't live in the world I'm creating.

This is a make-believe potential reality of the future. There are reflections of aspects of today's world, but what truly connects me to this story?

It's easy to get distracted by plot. It's easy to get excited about building a new world. Those things are great and necessary, especially in a film like this. But that stuff is not what people connect to. That stuff is the frosting and the sprinkles on the cake.

The cake itself, the internal structure, the source of people's connection to a story are its characters. You look at a masterpiece like The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien's stories are the epitome of world building, of incredibly compelling plots that give commentary on real-world issues, but why do people across the world connect so intimately to these stories? The characters. The intimacy of their struggles.

THAT is what I was missing from Kairath in the beginning.

I discovered that this story is not about the circumstances our main character is in. It's not about the world he's living in. It's not even about the "driving force" of the plot. This story is about our main character and his internal struggle - Taren and his relationship with grief. I know what you're thinking. "Duh, Elijah. Obviously that's what the story is about." But sometimes it takes a knock upside the head for it to really click.

Once I figured out that the core of this story was about Taren's struggle with grief, I instantly had a connection to him and thus a connection to my story. The THEME of this film is:

Time alone cannot heal grief. Time on its own cannot heal. For healing and restoration to begin, you must first find closure.

This brings us to the big question this film asks...

"What does closure look like for you?"

That's why this story matters. Grief is something that everyone deals with at some point in their life, some earlier than others. But grief takes many forms. The most obvious form of grief is when we lose a loved one. But it's universal far beyond that. We can grieve the loss of a job we enjoyed.

A child can grieve the loss of their friends when they're forced to move. Grief does not always equate to death, but I do believe that loss through death creates the deepest form of grief and often the most relatable.

My mom passed away on July 23rd, 2022. That was, and is to this day, unequivocally the worst and most difficult day of my life. And the months and years to come were and have been harder than I could have imagined.

I don't believe that grief can be "overcome" or that anyone can "complete" the grieving process. In my experience, and in those I've conversed with on the topic, it is a daily struggle.

Some days are easier. Some days are harder. Some days are filled with sadness, regret, or pain. Other days are filled with joyful memories of the laughs you once shared. And although I do not believe grief is something which you can reach the end of, I do believe that there is a way to find a place of peace. Closure.

That is what this story explores. Yes, it is action-packed. Yes, it is filled with adventure. But the core tenet of the story is that you cannot find that place of peace in your heart until you have found closure. Taren's struggle is that he has no idea he even needs to find closure, let alone what that closure may look like.

He's forced into a situation that demands he face his grief head-on and deal with his undealt with trauma.

My hope is that this film helps people learn what I am learning in my own experience with grief.

Leaving it be, ignoring it, distracting yourself from it, none of those things help. Waiting for yourself to get better doesn't work. You have to find closure to find peace.

And I hope this film will prompt people to introspectively inspect their own relationship with grief to discover if there is anywhere they are lacking closure.

Taren Vesper (Nate Huntley): Taren Vesper is a man hardened by circumstance and time. Depressed and living day to day, he struggles with the self-inflicted reality of his isolated life. Time eats him alive, yet he toils on with a small hope that there is a reason he is still on this earth. Suppressing his emotions comes naturally to him. His misconception that time will heal him is slowly destroying him, but something within urges him on.

Kara (Michelle Mestayer): Kara is a woman wrought with pain in so many ways, but she is strong. She is strong-willed, confident, and worn by life, though it doesn’t show in her face. She’s a genius, technologically. She’s approachable, relatable. Her kind face typically calms those in her presence, making negotiating a specialty skill of hers.

Jeffery (Bryan Whorton): Jeffery is worn and scarred. He’s done his time, and he’s looking for a ticket out. The only problem is, he’s stuck. When he tries to quit, he gets the itch to push on. But he’s not as young as he once was, and his body lets him know it. He’s morally obscure. He doesn’t really believe in anything, but there is a part of him that likes subverting people’s expectations. He doesn’t like playing by the rules, but he’ll do anything for personal gain.

Jarrick (Charlie Pardue): Jarrick is a boy who had to grow up fast. He’s kind, but his ambition and desire to prove himself outweigh his nature. His driving motivation in life is caring for his mother. He has big life goals, like any driven young man. However, life has led him down a path where the future is uncertain and he is never promised the next day, and he dwells on this fact each day.

Isaac (Joseph Lawrence Hoffman): Isaac is deceptive. He looks one way, puts on a face, but the second you cross him you become his target. Hyper-intelligence + psychopathic obsessive tendencies = a man whose bad side you don’t want to be on. Once he’s made up his mind about something, there’s no changing it.

Kayla (Melanie Petrila): Kayla is the epitome of defying the odds. She turned out to be a pure soul in spite of the bad hand life dealt her. She’s kind, always does whatever she can to help a stranger in need, and she’s smart. Her wit helps her survive alone, though she longs to have company again.

The Informant (Justin Marlow): The Informant doesn’t give a second thought to killing. It’s in his nature. He doesn’t do it for good, and he doesn’t intentionally do it for bad. He just does it because it’s his job, and he’s good at it. He lacks sympathy OR empathy of any kind. He is an instigator of unrest. He finds a small amount of joy in irritating those around him.

This first phase of crowdfunding is going to be directly focused on production logistics, what we actually need just to get picture up.

• Cast - $10,000

• Art Department - $7,500

• Wardrobe/HMU - $3,000

• Equipment Rentals - $5,000

• Food - $4,500

• File Storage - $5,000

CAST: Pretty self explanatory, but this portion of the budget is how we will pay our incredible cast who will truly bring these characters to life, including our extras.

ART DEPARTMENT: You can't have a movie without production design. This category includes everything from props, to set dressing, to location modifications. Everything we need to make this film LOOK the way it needs to.

WARDROBE/HMU: Our cast has to look the part. Regardless of how good their performances are, if they don't look like they could be a part of the world of the film, you won't believe them. This portion of the budget includes wardrobe, hair and makeup for our extras as well!

FOOD: For a two and a half week production, feeding roughly 40 people can get expensive. While we are hoping to get some food sponsorships, those are never guaranteed, and people need to eat! This money will allow us to ensure that everyone on the cast & crew stays fat and happy. :)

FILE STORAGE: Everyone knows how expensive hard drives have gotten recently. This money will ensure that we have adequate storage for the footage and audio that we capture on set, as well as enough to create backups just in case. You can never be too safe!

The first $35,000 raised here will help cover the essentials. Rentals, production design and props, actor payment, food, etc. This is the bare minimum that we need to actually get this film made! I'm blessed enough that a large number of our crew are good friends and close colleagues who are passionate enough about this project to take delayed payment. We also have many other necessary facets of production covered already! The large majority of our locations and gear are already secured! However, surpassing this $35k goal would be FANTASTIC!

Reaching our $35,000 goal gets us through production, but the journey doesn't end when the cameras stop rolling! We will actively continue seeking funding throughout filming and the following months to cover post-production; like sound mixing, color grading, and festival distribution, to bring this story all the way to the screen.