A STUDENT from Abertillery wants to champion South Wales’ film scene after her Kickstarter funded short-film reached its £2,500 target.
Ceri Ann Grail, 21, is producing a short-film, Dolls House, which she hopes will premiere at the Cardiff Independent Film festival this summer.
Dolls House is a 'colourful psychological thriller' inspired by The Shining and TV series Hannibal.
Ceri Ann Grail
“It’s based on ‘Lottie’, who is suffering from the trauma of losing her parents when she was young,” said Ms Grail.
“Lottie is 20 but, in her mind, she is eight-years-old. It’s a dystopian kind of reality that she has made for herself. She lives in this dolls house, but she just wants her parents back.”
Ms Grail said she feels 'at home' producing films and wants to be 'part of' the growing Welsh film scene.
Dolls House prop being developed
The film tries to combat tired clichés about time being a healer of trauma.
Writer and director Mariella Carla said: “Dolls House deals with the themes of grief, overcoming trauma, co-dependency and the basic human need for parental comfort.
“The film is about how time doesn’t heal trauma. You heal yourself from the trauma.”
Supporting actress Zoe James, who will play a hostage, is also from South Wales and Ceri was 'chuffed' to introduce more 'Welshness' into the play.
Cinematographer Alex Thorne plans to make the cinematography very light at the start to mirror Lottie’s child-like perspective.
“But as the film becomes more of a psychological thriller, we want to turn it up by making it darker and with more surrealist themes,” he said.
Once it has been shown at various festivals, the film will be available online for anyone to watch at the start of the new year.
The film is shot in Cheltenham University as part of Ceri’s final project for her Film Production degree.
You can donate to the Dolls House Kickstarter project at kickstarter.com/projects/dollshousefilm/dolls-house/updates
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