A psychologist is forced to face her past trauma in the middle of her grocery shop. Here’s our review of Returned which played at HollyShorts London Film Festival.
I think we can all agree that NHS workers are not just underpaid, but often underappreciated. It’s easy to forget that behind their work titles, there’s a real human being, with real troubles and problems. This is exactly the premise of Janet Marrett’s Returned.
Michelle Greenidge plays Zoe, an NHS psychologist, who is overwhelmed and tired by the end of her last session of the day. She heads out to the shop to get some dinner and her stepdad’s medication, and posts something on the communal notice board while she’s at it. Zoe is clearly struggling, and when a previous patient runs up to her, it takes all her might to ask her to just stop.
Returned is a short that inserts us into a very specific situation without much information or background. Zoe gets upset after seeing a young lad leaving the shop and runs after him, but we’re not entirely sure why. It can be a little frustrating, and I found myself frowning for most of the film’s runtime.
Read more: Short film review | Cry Like A Guy
Greenidge is convincing and compelling as Zoe, which certainly helps with how effective Returned ends up being. It’s an important reminder that we never know what someone has going on behind the scenes, and that everyone has a breaking point. Returned is short and sweet – perhaps a little too short. They say you should always leave your audience wanting more, but this could have offered a tad extra to meet its dramatic potential.
Returned screened as part of the HollyShorts London Film Festival 2024.
Related Stories
- Short Film Review: Gardening
A woman tries to understand and come to terms with sexual assault in artist and filmmaker Sarah Beeby’s haunting animated short film.
It feels like we’re living through a particularly exciting time for animation. We’ve got beautiful animated films such as The Wild Robot, the Spider-Verse movies and Robot Dreams to mention a few. Artist and [...]
- Short film review | Where Are All The Gay Superheroes?
Two superheroes ask the eternal question: where are all the gay superheroes? Here’s our review of Tom Paul Martin’s short film which screened at HollyShorts London Film Festival.
Superheroes are all the rage today, but we’re still quite short on queer superheroes on the big screen. Deadpool loves to joke about being gay, but do we [...]
- Short film review | Twenty
A young, homeless ballet dancer gets an audition of a lifetime, but first she needs to find somewhere to sleep. Here’s our review of Twenty which screened as part of HollyShorts London Film Festival.
If you’ve never been to a dance audition, let me tell you what they’re like. You’re given a number and you’re surrounded [...]
- Short film review | Three Things We Won’t Talk About
A woman is left alone after her thoughtless, potentially cheating boyfriend leaves on a worktrip. Here’s our review of Three Things We Won’t Talk About, which played at HollyShorts London Film Festival.
We’ve all had a partner who refuses to replace the toilet roll after they use the final piece, leaves their hair in the sink [...]
- Short film review | Stillness
A photographer has promised to take photos of a family that has experienced stillbirth. Here’s our review of Stillness, which played at HollyShorts London Film Festival.
As a society, we’ve slowly begun to discuss postpartum depression and the traumatic experience that childbirth can be, but we’re still learning to talk about stillbirth. It’s incredibly difficult for [...]
