Ropeless

When a mother of a young boy dies suddenly but expectedly, the father goes to great lengths to keep her alive with the son. He records hours of her talking, builds a machine in her bedroom that plays the recording, and hammers the door shut. As the boy grows up, he gets to have a relationship with his mother, who he thinks is a door. The door is as much of a parent as his father, as they play together, eat together, and celebrate holidays together. As the boy grows older, and after he sees his date confused by the arrangement, he grows suspicious. When the father dies, he destroys the door and sees the machine for the first time. He turns it off. Years pass. The boy, now an old man, returns to his childhood home. He turns on the machine and fixes the door. He sits at the door and talks to his mother for the first time in years, and possibly the last time ever.