Hoard (15)

Audacious and distinctive, the first feature from south-east London filmmaker Carmoon conjures an intense, psychological drama out of childhood trauma.Seven-year-old Maria lives with her mother Cynthia (Hayley Squires), an obsessive hoarder,in a litter-picked world that feels shiny and magical until tragedy intervenes. Years later, when school leaver Maria (Saura Lightfoot Leon) meets Michael, odd and strangely familiar, at her foster mother’s, it triggers an obsessive, feral bond. Bin-dipping for discarded treasures and collecting black bags full of festering garbage become Maria’s queasy way of reconnecting with the mishmash of conflicting emotions and sensations that make up her past.

“This is a film camped out in the mystery of what really turns us on.” Sophie Monks Kaufman, Time Out Sutherland Award for Best First Feature, BFI London Film Festival 2023

Preview courtesy of Vertigo Releasing