Better
2023 · 15m · UK
Directed by Zoe Hunter Gordon
Genres: coming-of-age, drama
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
When Ruth visits the seaside, she discovers her chronically ill sister Kitty has quietly built an entirely new life — a reunion that forces Ruth to confront how little she truly knows about her sister's illness and inner world.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A BFI Network-funded portrait of sisterhood and ableism that earns its emotional authority through restraint rather than sentiment, with two lead performances of uncommon precision.
Chronic-illness reframed as secret flourishing — that's a genuinely useful inversion, not a flattering one. Joanna Hogg comparison is overreach but Clio Barnard's lineage I'll grant. Modest interest.
Inverting the caretaker-patient dynamic by making chronic illness the catalyst for secret flourishing rather than limitation — that's a structural reframe that 15 minutes can sustain. BFI Network backing suggests it landed.
Festivals
- BFI London Film Festival 2023
- Norwich Film Festival 2023
- TweetFest Film Festival 2023, Best Actress (Ellie James)