The debut feature by Scottish filmmaker Peter Mackie Burns is an intimate portrait of a 31- year-old Londoner. The titular Daphne seems to be at a crossroads. She works at a hip
restaurant, constantly surrounded by people, but she can’t really form a deeper relationship with anyone—much less emotionally engage or romantically invest in the men she meets. Daphne spends her time partying, working her routine in a rhythm and style that she despises, and having random hook-ups. She has no desire to open up to her mother, who actually cares about her and makes an effort to maintain their bond. But one day she witnesses a robbery and this event makes her confront not only the situation at hand, but also her own emotional emptiness and indifference. Daphne, poignantly played by Emily Beecham, is not a typical big city working class young woman per se, but rather a representative of a generation that can’t really enter adulthood and find its place in the reality of Western capitalist societies. Her emotional distance seems to be the only available defense mechanism. It enables survival, but at the same time it results in alienation.
Peter Mackie Burns
Nico Mensinga
Adam Scarth
Sam Beste
Emily Beecham, Geraldine James, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Nathaniel Martello-White, Osy Ikhile