Friend of the World (2020)

Friend of the World is a 2020 sci-fi thriller written and directed by Brian Patrick Butler. The film is about solitude, personal growth, and the corruption that can accompany that growth within the gray areas of our mentors’ enlightened, but fractured psyches.

Plot
The simple and seemingly small scale story is of a young filmmaker who awakens in a pile of corpses and tries to piece together the causes of the apocalypse with the help of an infuriatingly eccentric figure of the United States military.

Cast

 * Nick Young as Gore
 * Alexandra Slade as Diane
 * Michael C. Burgess as Berenger
 * Kathryn Schott as Eva
 * Kevin Smith as Thin man
 * Luke Pensabene as Ferguson

Production
The first draft was written in August 2016, amidst a presidential election much more controversial than usual, growing fear of war with other countries, and a burgeoning cynicism in America that was beginning to spread like wildfire. All of these informed a script that was originally coming from a personal place of fear and isolation.

Release
Friend of the World held its virtual world premiere on August 15, 2020 at the Oceanside International Film Festival.