BEND
2021 · 8m · UK
Directed by Georgia Goggin
Genres: dark comedy, drama
Tones: darkly comic, provocative, tense
A mother struggles to act after her teenage daughter is sexually harassed by a classmate, until a chance encounter with the perpetrator's father forces her hand. The film focuses on the aftermath of assault rather than the assault itself, reframing harassment as a story of maternal empowerment.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Goggin's refusal to depict the assault — centering instead the scalding comedy of a mother's long-overdue fury — is precisely the kind of formal conviction that separates a short film from a mere anecdote.
Off-screen assault, mother-versus-father confrontation, comic-fury pivot — Three Billboards in eight minutes is a hard trick. The premise lives or dies on Robin Weaver's performance; I'd risk it.
Excising the assault from the screen entirely and locating the drama in maternal comic fury post-fact is a tonal pivot that very few shorts pull off cleanly — Goggin trusts Robin Weaver and Greg Wise to play the parental power-shift in a single confrontation. The reframing is the bet, and at 8 minutes it can't waste a beat.
Reviews
Distinctly NOT harrowing but brilliantly, drily funny — a post-#MeToo fantasy about finding your voice and taking back control.
Festivals
- Encounters Film Festival 2021
- London Short Film Festival 2022
- Underwire Film Festival 2022, Best Director (nomination)