Scottish short film based on Welsh short story scoops awards and accolades

A film based on a powerful short story by a Welsh author is collecting awards and nominations across the UK and beyond.

‘Consumed’ by Sian Hughes is the opening tale of her collection ‘Pain Sluts’ and is adapted from Hughes’ original story Can You Eat the Wind.

It tells the difficult and hard-hitting tale of Faye, a woman who, in her grief following an early miscarriage, preserves the embryo in a jar of oil.

The screenplay adheres closely to the original story and explores the pain and loss inherent in miscarriage, and the profound effect the experience can have.

It is described by one reviewer as a film which “manages to simultaneously touch on a couple of taboos: miscarriage, the impact it has on the psyche of a woman that goes through it, but also on another sensitive topic of wanting to have one’s own offspring, instead of taking the role of a guest parent.”

Quietly understated, with much conveyed in the silence between the central characters, what words there are highlight the growing chasm in their relationship.

With an unexpected finale, the story on the page and the screen leaves the reader shocked and moved by Faye’s experience, as she does something author Sian Hughes says might be considered, in the circumstances, ‘utterly logical.’

The collection was shortlisted this summer for Wales English Language Book of the Year and the People’s Choice Award, with a judging panel which included poet and writer Krystal Lowe, journalist and broadcaster Andy Welch, author and presenter Matt Brown, and poet and recipient of a 2020 Rising Star Award, Taylor Edmonds.  

Festivals

Produced in Scotland by Smashing Pics Ltd, the film has been nominated for Best Short Film and Best Scottish Film at the HB Film Festival which showcases independent cinema.

The work is also in the running for Best Director, Best Music, Best Sound and Best Edit, while the lead actress, Shauna MacDonald won Best Actress in the BELIFE Film Festival and Best Director was awarded to Karen Lamond.

It won Best Foreign Film in Copenhagen’s short film festival and best short film at the Reykjavik Feminist Film Festival.

The film has also been selected to screen at festivals in Berlin, Glasgow and Nottingham as well as at Uptilt, Sister Feminist Film Festival and Women Make Waves International Film Festival in Taiwan.

Vulnerable

The female team, director Karen Lamond, producer Penny Davies and screen writer Simone Pereira Hind, say they hope it will help improve awareness of the loss women recovering from early miscarriage experience.

Speaking in the Times, Davies said: “I’m appalled that early miscarriage is such a common experience and yet still so little is done to support women emotionally at such a vulnerable, lonely time.

“I recently accompanied someone to hospital who was in a similar position to our lead character, Faye. The ward staff were wonderful and warm but there was no way to avoid the added upset of being moved from A&E to the maternity wing for treatment.”