A scientist's attempt to outdo his own father sets off the central experiment in Minor Premise, a science-fiction thriller built almost entirely around one man's unraveling mind.
What is Minor Premise about?
The film centers on a neuroscientist trying to live up to a towering paternal legacy in his field. When a private, secretive experiment goes wrong, his consciousness splits into ten competing fragments, each one contending for control of who he actually is. What began as an attempt to prove a theory quickly turns into a race against his own splintering identity, most of it playing out within the walls of his own lab. Colleagues and family members drift in and out of his shrinking world as the fragments argue, bargain and turn on one another, forcing him to work out which version of himself he can still trust before there is nothing coherent left to save.
About the cast
Eric Schultz directs Sathya Sridharan in the lead role, opposite Paton Ashbrook, with Dana Ashbrook, Purva Bedi, Alex Breaux, E.J. Carroll, Karron Graves and Nikolas Kontomanolis filling out the supporting cast around him. The small ensemble keeps the focus tight on the lead performance, which has to carry several competing versions of the same character at once.
Context & significance
Blending drama, science fiction and thriller elements, this 95-minute, 2020 American production leans on close, contained filmmaking rather than spectacle, letting a confined setting sharpen the tension around its central experiment. It treats its science-fiction premise as a psychological puzzle more than an effects-driven vehicle, with the tension coming from dialogue and editing rather than action set pieces. Much of the drama plays out through conversations between fragments of the same person, a structural choice that keeps the story feeling more like a chamber piece than a typical genre thriller.
Watching Minor Premise on Ktime
Minor Premise is available on K-Time with a free account login, and comes with both Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles, letting Farsi-speaking viewers follow the fragmented story in whichever format they prefer.