Adam Wimpenny directed this short film in 2009, years before his feature film Blackwood, which premiered at the BFI London Film Festival in 2013. His talent, however, was already quite apparent when Roar was produced.

Roar, showing beautiful opening shots of London around Christmas, tells the story of grumpy Eva (Jodie Whittaker), who’s just had an argument with someone and walks into a shop to pick up her dry cleaning and get her keys cut.

She is greeted by extrovert shop owner Mick (Tom Burke), who is annoyingly trying to strike a conversation at all costs, while timid Tom (Russell Tovey) is cutting her key and discretely looks at her through a mirror. Eva disregards Mick’s advances and walks off, forgetting her wallet. Tom seizes the chance and runs after her to hand it back and to apologize for Mick’s inappropriate behaviour, but she simply ignores him. The encounter clearly sparks an emotional turmoil in the lonely boy, desperate for some closeness. And desperate times call for desperate actions.

Roar, which has since secured major awards at Aspen and Rhode Islands Film Festivals, is a very visually engaging, dark movie with a great narrative that creates brilliant suspense. It looks and feels magnificent. One to watch.

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