Olly’s childhood memories are covered by a veil of trauma. With his volatile father and an unprotective mother, the home he grew up in was anything but a safe space. The refuge from the grim daily reality was provided by his sister and the imaginative dreamscapes she crafted for both of them. The Time Before is an emotional story about the strength of a sibling bond and the power of perseverance. Its dual visual language mirrors the tension: the raw immediacy of hand-drawn sketches of reality contrasts with the vivid, underwater live-action worlds born of imagination. It leaves us with a haunting question: what is more real — the trauma we endured, or the stories we invented to survive?