British comedy innovator Alice Lowe provides her insight on your submissions for the June Film of the Month.

Alice has awarded first place to Christopher Green’s Broken Glass, a drama about a meeting in a pub between two young women following a tragic incident that still haunts both of them, albeit in different ways.  Alice praises ‘the pace of this powerful little short’, as well as the ‘subtle and nuanced and very believable’ performances and the ‘bold’ direction, stating that ‘the slowness really gave me time to identify and become interested in the characters. Just a simple moment to observe a character gave me so much information.’

‘I was drawn into the scenario and wanted to know more. Even though the plot pulled no overly obvious punches, I felt moved by the end of this film, my sympathies having been unexpectedly diverted to the perpetrator rather than the victim, as I felt her regret powerfully. Again, very subtly and deftly achieved with confidence in holding the frame on the performers. Showed great promise.’

Broken Glass by Christopher Green.

Runner up was Tomasz Aleksander’s The Devil’s in the Detail, a comedy based around the well-known scenario about a pair of unsuspecting burglars breaking and entering a house, which she commends for taking ‘a surprising non-cliched twist, which kept the suspense and humour going at all times.’ 

‘It reminded me of an old Ealing comedy in the sense that it operated in a world where the criminals were very likeable, and the ‘ordinary’ folk were just as, if not more, dastardly! A very enjoyable and refreshingly surprising short, and a great comic dynamic between these two performers, which could easily play out well in a longer format such as sitcom.’

The Devil’s in the Detail by Tomasz Aleksander.

Alice’s other runner up was Ben Hyland’s 88, a concise drama about a chance meeting between the father of a young boy killed in a road accident and the driver responsible. Alice cites the work as ‘An interesting take on the meeting of a moment, when again, a perpetrator comes face-to-face with the victim of his misdeeds.’

‘An imagining of a confrontation, which like Broken Glass, leaves you in wonderment of the power of forgiveness. Very simply but effectively shot.’

88 by Ben Hyland.