Major Project Development: Idea for 5-7 Minute Film

For this short film I aim to portray the concept of how life and death are a recurring cycle in nature, I want to explore how they flow through each other as time passes  and show a man as he attempts to break free of the cycle and transcend to a higher realm. I also want to make use of the themes of faith and doubt as a main conflict that my protagonist must overcome. I like the idea of having the his faith and doubt manifest themselves in a purgatory realm and portraying the man as he struggles to overcome his doubt due to his loss of faith. 

I therefore feel I need three characters in this film,

• A Man - The protagonist of sorts and the explorer of the purgatory forest. 
• A Woman - A character from the Man's past, a fragment of his life that haunts him and resembles his loss of faith, she will visit him in Limbo and provide the key to his salvation but could it actually seal his doom?
• Stranger - A nasty looking creature which resembles the Man's doubt, his presence grows as the story progresses and ultimately overcomes him, which sends the Man back through the endless cycle.

I think I should also make use of a couple of props, my ideas so far is to use a key and a dagger, each one also intertwined with the idea of faith vs doubt, the key may hold salvation and a way out for the Man but might also be an object from his past which ultimately holds him back. The dagger which I think should be given by the Stranger, could be a symbol of the Man's impending doom but also as a weapon to kill the doubt which begins to take over.  

Another thought I have had since watching The last of England and Robinson in Ruins is that I should include some narration during the film. I would like to try and explore the structure of classic Greek Tragedies and split my film according to the structure of those plays, particularly that of the story of Dionysus and Euripides. In this way my narration could play as the 'chorus' of my film, each one being a short poem and acting as the odes, which were sung during tragedies.