Hoard

There are moments in writer-director Luna Carmoon’s Hoard that are strange and unsettling to watch, with some points verging on the grotesque. No matter how peculiar the filmmaker’s directorial debut gets, though, there’s a tender bittersweetness woven into this tale of grief, trauma, sexual awakening and teenage rebellion. The result is an arresting concoction of all-out madness and visual splendour.

Beginning in 1984, the film sees seven-year-old Maria (Lily-Beau Leech) living with her mother (a sensational Hayley Squires) in their London home that’s filled with the piles of rubbish that they collect. Although Maria’s shunned by her classmates and teachers, trawling through bins with her mother into the early hours of the morning is their way of showing their love towards each other. However, when disaster strikes at Christmas, Maria’s sent to live with her foster mum (Samantha Spiro). Ten years later, Maria (now played by Saura Lightfoot Leon) has just left school and has struck up a relationship with an older man named Michael (Joeseph Quinn), and her sexual awakening collides with resurfaced grief and trauma from her childhood.

Whether it’s the cathartic screams of Maria and her mother while playing together, the feverish cinematic language that transforms some moments into bizarre dreamlike sequences or the absurd metaphors used to express Maria’s burgeoning womanhood, there’s an irresistible giddy energy running throughout Carmoon’s movie that gives it the feel of a surrealist comedy. However, some of these quirkier moments are exaggerated to the point of garish excess, especially a scene reminiscent of The Tin Drum that revolves around spitting on sherbet. The director doesn’t hold back in her approach to the subject matter as she confronts viewers with an array of weird and disturbing imagery.

As unhinged as events become, it’s this feature’s heartfelt depictions of loss and grief that ground the unbridled insanity. Making everything all the better is Leon’s stellar performance and a striking visual presentation, which sprinkles in an element of the fantastical to this profoundly human story.

Moving between alluringly strange and sickeningly depraved without compromising the moving themes that underpin its protagonist’s journey, there’s nothing out there like the visionary genius of Carmoon’s Hoard, marking her as a promising new filmmaker.

Andrew Murray

Hoard is released nationwide on 17^th May 2024.

Watch the trailer for Hoard here: