Tangles And Knots

Your mother. There are probably times when you shouted, screamed and yelled at her, especially when puberty has set in. However, despite the possible fights, you love her and she loves you. You know she means well and that it’s all for your good. Sometimes you might forget that and that’s exactly what happened to Laura (Odessa Young).

Director Renee Petropoulos’s (“Ana”, “Beneath the Waves”) latest short film shows that, even when things are getting out of hand, the strong bond between mother and daughter is indestructible.

Being a teenager is probably a lot of fun. Partying, drinking and having a lot of friends. However, this isn’t the case for Laura in the first place. Despite coming from a rich background, she needs and wants to impress her new and more popular friends with a huge pool party. Her modern and very stylish mother (Leeanna Walsman) helps Laura out in the best way possible.

Everything seems going excellently well until jealousy crops up. It’s clear that being popular and attractive for the boys doesn’t come easy for Laura while it seems to be a piece of cake for her mother. Not knowing how to handle this, Laura becomes even more jealous and rebellious to the dissatisfaction of her mother. What impact will this have on their sticky and intimate bond?

“Tangles and Knots” was Petropoulos’s final thesis film as part of getting her “Master of Fine Arts: Filmmaking” degree at New York’s Columbia University. If we would have rated this film, she would have passed the test with flying colours. What makes this movie very pleasant to watch is that it makes us feel very welcome from the first second. Thanks to the bright cinematography and the human story, we are sucked in straight away into the story of the loving mother and daughter. Of course, it’s that very recognizable bond between Michelle and Laura that makes us feel at ease while watching this movie.

This film is really about the human connection between the public and the characters. That loveable connection wouldn’t shine through this movie if it wasn’t for the wonderful interaction between Leeanna Walsman (“Safe Harbour”, “Seven Types of Ambiguity”) and Odessa Young (“The Daughter”, “High Life”) as the mother and daughter. Both are from Australia and with their performances, they show that “Down Under” has excellent female acting talent.

Having its premiere during the Berlinale 2018, this wonderful film is now part of the “International: Generation Gap” programme at this years’ London Short Film Festival. It’s an uplifting, funny but also dark and secretive film during which the indestructible bond between mother and daughter is at risk just because of jealousy. Check it out on the 15th of January.

(This review was written as part of the London Short Film Festival)