Talismans

A depressed man spirals as he struggles to open up about his mental health. James, a mid-20s modern day man, has battled with anxiety and depression for an unknown amount of time. It’s unclear what caused is and the solution is even more ambiguous. While he has a loving group of friends and a caring partner, he cannot bring himself to open up, even when directly asked about it. This causes an inner conflict for James. He cannot speak about it, he can’t resolve his issues and the contemplative suicidal thoughts are too extreme to entertain. And so he is trapped with his life sentence, with his mind as his prison. He indulges in substance abuse and often imagines pretend scenarios to escape, but these fleeting feelings only make matters worse.

North London, 1983 - A creepy, solitary man becomes the target of paranormal activity from his drains and pipes. As his anxieties mount, his dark past uncovers and haunts him to his demise.

Nat, a hair academy student, is due to complete her final practical exam. Nat’s hopes of doing well quickly shatter when she meets her model, Eliza… her ex she hasn’t seen since their messy breakup.

Aspiring screenwriter, Cass, sits ruminating on her ended relationship with Ezra. Memories overcome her - she guides us through the highs and lows, her internal monologue serving as an apology and a testimony for why things ended the way they did. She confesses to having lost interest once things became too dull and stopped inspiring her writing. The desire for true, raw feeling culminates as she states she wants to get beaten up. Someplace else, Ezra is leaving a voicemail to Cass. As his emotions let loose, he reveals a darker side to Cass’s hunger for inspiration. Unsure of whether anything in their relationship was real, he wishes that him and Cass never met, and urges her to write about her life and back off his. With neither character's monologue reaching their addressee, nothing is resolved, instead painting a complex portrait of the incompatibility of Cass’s tendency to write about what’s happening around her, and Ezra’s unwillingness to simply be a character in her scripts.

Eccentric, non-binary fortune teller Fei Liu's way of life is threatened when figures and phantoms of present and past visit their tent and plague their subconscious, throwing their own future - and grip on reality - into turmoil.

A love story in a remote Ukrainian village is recounted through a pile of old letters and secret voice recordings.

Following the outbreak of war, an elderly Ukrainian refugee gets stopped by Customs while trying to bring a jar of Ukrainian soil into the UK.