What I Barely Have
A Short Film by Valentino Summo
"When an 85-year-old man with Alzheimer's is visited by a young couple posing as family, they attempt to uncover the combination to his hidden safe—but as his fractured memories blur past and present, their con turns into a moral trap."
Watch the Presentation
Synopsis
Act I — The Intrusion
Bob, an 85-year-old man with Alzheimer's, lives alone, painting fragments of a life he can no longer fully remember. When a young couple arrives claiming to be his grandchildren, he lets them in—drawn more by the need for connection than certainty. They are not who they say they are.
Act II — The Manipulation
As Bob's memory resets, the couple rebuilds his trust again and again, searching for the combination to a hidden safe. But in fleeting moments of clarity, he begins to connect one of them to the memory of his late wife. What started as control slowly turns into something neither of them expected.
Act III — What Remains
When Bob finally leads them to what they came for, he gives it freely—mistaking the present for a memory of love. Faced with his vulnerability, everything shifts. They leave with nothing they intended to take, and something they cannot return.
Characters
Bob
85-year-old widower
Living with Alzheimer's. He represents memory, regret, and the profound love that remains.
Sammy
22 • Calculated • Guarded
She undergoes a profound emotional transformation as the moral weight of the con sets in.
Tom
23 • Conflicted • Passive
Morally passive, he embodies the internal guilt and hesitation of their deception.
Themes
Memory vs Identity
Time & Regret
Greed vs Grace
Unexpected Redemption
The Painting Remembers
Bob paints the same place again and again.
Not because he remembers it clearly,
but because something in him refuses to let it disappear.
Visual Style
- Mostly static camera
- Warm interiors, colder exteriors
- Memory scenes feel more "real"
- Oil painting texture motif
- Minimal and diegetic sound
Director's Intention
"This film is about how memory shapes identity and how time defines what we value. It places the audience inside a fragmented perception of reality, not explaining Alzheimer's, but making them feel it."
— Valentino Summo