The starring role of "Fire Lily" is played by Ohio State alum and Ohio native Al LaFleur. He plays a police officer at a career crossroad who's central to the film's story. (WSYX)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — A short film that just wrapped up filming in Cleveland is already grabbing headlines.

"Fire Lily" follows a brief police detainment that quickly turns into much more, as two characters grow to understand each other.

"Something extraordinary happens, and we have this kind of surrealist break in the story where there's this kind of stepping-in from the universe of speaking through dance and poetry and powerful music," said Phil Dunn, the film's director, who also wrote the screenplay. "It's quite an unusual story, but it's trying to look for hope amid all the stuff that's going on in the world right now."

Dunn originally wrote the screenplay in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, racial justice protests, and the Amazon Rainforest fire.

"It just felt like from one man, to all of humankind, to the planet itself, there was this fight for breath, and it just struck me," Dunn said.

Academy Award winner Kim Magnusson is one of the film's producers. He won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film in 1999 and 2013. He's joined on the producing team by singer, dancer, and Britain's Got Talent Judge Alesha Dixon.

The starring role is played by Ohio State alum and Ohio native Al LaFleur. He plays a police officer at a career crossroad who's central to the film's story.

"He's at a difficult place in his career, in his life, and like a lot of cops, he doesn't have an easy job," LaFleur said. "The beautiful part about this film is that as the experiencer, the actor, hopefully the viewer, you think it's going to be one thing, and it turns out to be so much more than that."

For LaFleur, who grew up an hour from Cleveland, in North Canton, the film has extra meaning to him.

"To work with a world-class team in the streets of Cleveland, it's truly one of those full-circle dream moments," Lafleur said.

With a star-studded team backing the film, they have high ambitions for its future.

"Kim, our producer, is saying we should aim to submit it to Cannes Film Festival ideally for a premiere," Dunn said. "So we're doing that, if he says so, then that's what we'll do, he's the one with the Oscars."

The film was shot across four nights and one day in Cleveland, and is now in post-production. The goal is to have a finished product by the end of February.

"(I'm grateful) just to be a part of it and know we have something good in the can, it's out of my hands now, happy editing buddy," LaFleur said, to which Dunn replied, "We'll make you look good, Al."