Walls Like Windows
2022 · 12m · UK
Directed by Werner Vivier
Genres: drama
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
When a grieving woman invites a stranger into her home under the guise of an administrative errand, she is forced to confront the loss she has been carefully avoiding. A quiet two-hander about isolation, distraction, and the basic human need for connection in the wake of trauma.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
It's a grief film that refuses the catharsis beat—just a woman and a stranger in a room, the emotional devastation happening in her pupils. Most scouts will call it 'quiet'; Felix calls it a refusal to comfort anyone, including the audience.
Stevenson's performance sits in a lineage of chamber drama restraint—Bergman's silences, Koreeda's attentiveness to small rooms—and Vivier has the formal discipline to let real-time accumulation do the heavy lifting instead of false turning points.
The entire film lives in Juliet Stevenson's ability to betray grief through absence, through what her face refuses to do; that single choice—playing someone *hiding* rather than processing—transforms a 12-minute administrative visit into something that stays with you.
Reviews
Captures our acute need for human connection and empathy when navigating trauma.
Intricate writing and direction, a naturalistic approach to lighting, and cinematography which expresses the shifting tones.
Festivals
- Foyle Film Festival 2022
- Kinsale Shark Awards 2022, Best Short Film; Best Performance
- British Short Film Awards 2022, Best Supporting Actor
- Cambridge International Film Festival 2022
- Bolton International Film Festival 2022
- Newport Beach International Film Festival 2022
- Lone Star Film Festival 2022