What They Called Me. A Spectacular Journey to Self-Discovery by Rimon

Rimon, a 23-year-old Eritrean-born, Netherlands-raised rising star who keeps and highlights her strong connections with her roots. In May the singer released her second EP called ‘I Shine, U shine’. She has created this short film named “What They Called Me”, with Brussels-based creative BLEUNUIT, as accompaniment to her new EP. It is an incredible journey of beautifully filmed highs and lows, that span over 16 minutes.

The film starts with Rimon reciting a monologue in her mother tongue. The depth and emotion created through this film is already amplified in this first scene, even without the understanding of what is being said. Whether you close your eyes and just listen to the sound of her voice, or read the subtitles, you are completely and utterly drawn in. She ends the first scene stating that Rimon is the name given to her at birth, but she “never accepted it.”

She explores the concept of a name, how she could never identify with hers. Traditionally Rimon was a Hebrew name given to boys, which also means ‘pomegranate’, so her inability to identify with it is understandable.

The short film is a tantalizing journey of self-discovery and identity, whilst highlighting the highs and lows of heart ache and love. As each scene begins you sink deeper into the story line. You watch as she goes through two relationships, what leads to their collapse and at the end there is a sense of realization. Rimon closes the final scene with “the only one I have ever loved and hated, the only one I abandoned and protected. The only one I returned to, is me. My name is Rimon.”

Rimon has spoken of how the film is balance of fiction and reality; a story of falling in love, feeling trapped and controlled and finding what she thought was freedom in someone new. However, as the film progresses the viewer is able to see that this is just a perception, whereas in reality she states that it identifies how she truly loses herself in whoever she is with. She states that she adapts herself “to that person in the most extreme ways to the point of self-destruction, caused by unspoken childhood traumas.” Watch the short film below!