Shona works on the moon as a minor, getting that hazard pay to try and cover the medical costs in the hope that her daughter will survive treatment and recover from her illness. The news of her failure to respond comes on the same day that a rookie arrives on the moon to take over Shona's position.
Although there are some good examples, I'm finding that sci-fi is a dangerous place for short films. Sometimes they get the mix right of effects and ideas but mixed with a more relatable core, whether it be comedy, drama or whatever; however other times they push so hard to show off technically what they can do, that they do nothing else. For Expo the goal is to make a film that will move you with its ultimately human story which fits into the world (moon) of the future but reaches out with its human. This is the goal but it is a card that overplays consistently to the point of completely undoing anything it is trying to achieve.
While I worried that the ideas would be lost behind the effects and that this would just be a show-reel for that, the truth is that the ideas actually get buried below melodrama in all its syrupy forms. So we have the cloying "feel now" music which plays throughout, we have the obvious flashbacks, the forced emotional conclusion and some hammy performances that think "big" moments are emotional by virtue of pushing it. None of it really works and indeed I just felt cut off from it the more it hammered "emotion" buttons in the hope that by just throwing every cliché at the wall that some of them would work.
It is a shame because technically the film is decent and there are some good aspects around the production considering the limited resources, however the plot is weak and the themes are hammered home without any subtlety or finesse – even viewers whose sole experiences of film is on the Hallmark channel during the day would feel that this is forced and corny.
