Hard to muse on this film without spoilers, so ignore this if you've not seen the film. The short opens with Lily buying a pregnancy kit in a garage while her boyfriend waits outside – the lady behind the tills clocks the bruises on Lily's shoulder, and the embarrassed way Lily covers them up. This scene is occurring while at the same time we see Lily and Alex travelling up to Scotland, practicing with a rifle on the way. They visit a house to interview someone on behalf of a London newspaper (they say), and Alex focuses on interviewing and photographing Abi, who lives in the house. As this plays out we learn that something happened in this house many years prior.
What this event was is not totally made clear, however a brief glimpse of a newspaper cutting shows it to be some sort of shooting in which the man was found innocent and set free. From this we can assume that Lily has some connection to whomever was killed in this shooting, and that this is a revenge of some sort. In the broad sweep the film sounds obvious, and I guess in these broad strokes it is; however what makes it engaging is that we are not seeing these broad strokes so much as piecing things together from lots of detail. It also helps that we mostly don't have the whole picture or even close to it, but the film fills us with a dark sense of foreboding and mystery which is engaging and adds tension.
I very much liked that the film stayed with me for some time afterwards, and gave plenty to think on. Of course there are narrative specifics I would like have closure on, but knowing precise details maybe wouldn't add as much as I think they would. Instead what stayed with me was thoughts around what I knew; for example pondering on Lily's knock for help – if we saw that at the start we would assume a physically abusive relationship, however we know at the end this is not the case. But at the same time she wants the police and she is saddened by a pregnancy with Alex. This is interesting in that it made me wonder about their relationship, and made me extend what little I knew about her past to make me wonder about who she is as an adult and what type of man she may be with. This is added to by how easily Alex seems to engage in the act of revenge (assuming they kill Abi, which I think they do), and it suggests that Alex enabled Lily's darker side to win over her better angels – albeit temporarily.
This and other elements stayed with me after the film, and had me rewatching to try to gleam more. It is not an easy sell as a film, and it seems deliberately difficult at times (and frustrating in the way it doesn't give you everything you'd want in a neat narrative); but it is engaging, intriguing, rewarding, and very well put together by the talented Rob Savage.
What this event was is not totally made clear, however a brief glimpse of a newspaper cutting shows it to be some sort of shooting in which the man was found innocent and set free. From this we can assume that Lily has some connection to whomever was killed in this shooting, and that this is a revenge of some sort. In the broad sweep the film sounds obvious, and I guess in these broad strokes it is; however what makes it engaging is that we are not seeing these broad strokes so much as piecing things together from lots of detail. It also helps that we mostly don't have the whole picture or even close to it, but the film fills us with a dark sense of foreboding and mystery which is engaging and adds tension.
I very much liked that the film stayed with me for some time afterwards, and gave plenty to think on. Of course there are narrative specifics I would like have closure on, but knowing precise details maybe wouldn't add as much as I think they would. Instead what stayed with me was thoughts around what I knew; for example pondering on Lily's knock for help – if we saw that at the start we would assume a physically abusive relationship, however we know at the end this is not the case. But at the same time she wants the police and she is saddened by a pregnancy with Alex. This is interesting in that it made me wonder about their relationship, and made me extend what little I knew about her past to make me wonder about who she is as an adult and what type of man she may be with. This is added to by how easily Alex seems to engage in the act of revenge (assuming they kill Abi, which I think they do), and it suggests that Alex enabled Lily's darker side to win over her better angels – albeit temporarily.
This and other elements stayed with me after the film, and had me rewatching to try to gleam more. It is not an easy sell as a film, and it seems deliberately difficult at times (and frustrating in the way it doesn't give you everything you'd want in a neat narrative); but it is engaging, intriguing, rewarding, and very well put together by the talented Rob Savage.
