Overview

We are making a surreal and funny 120-minute long short film about a woman who goes on several first dates, convinces her dates she is going to pay, but always runs out on the bill … that is until the day she gets caught. It’s a female led story created by a predominantly female crew. We have a great script and talented team of actors and production artists.

Summary

A 120-minute comedy short film, great production values, a quirky and surreal script with a female protagonist, produced and supported by a female-led team.

We immediately thought the story had potential for a dark comedy, and started thinking about whether a woman could play the role of the man running out on the dates.

That’s how we came up with our main character, Steph. Think Villanelle, from Killing Eve, only she doesn’t kill people, she just leaves them broke. She doesn’t like to conform to society’s rules. She’s conceited, anarchic and destructive in the pursuit of something that eludes and frustrates her. What’s more, she gets weirder and more daring as the film goes on.

Through a mixture of surreal elements, montage, snappy interrupted dialogue and the film’s Wes Anderson-inspired aesthetic, the audience gets to know Steph’s pretty narcissistic idea of herself in a world she’s creating and quickly burning to the ground.

Our talented cast includes some acting ‘royalty’. Playing two of the luckless guys are Alexander Tol (seen in the teaser), from the series “Victoria”, and Philip Andrew who stars in the series “The Spanish Princess”.

The Team

producer: Katrin Kasper

Xuemeng Li: director

Simona Pranulyte: director of photography

Vanessa Bundschu: production manager

Saule Ramancauskaite: Make-up artist

Sam Oates: writer