HOARD
HOARD
Seven-year-old Maria lives with her mother who suffers from obsessive hoarding disorder. Social services recognise her upbringing environment in tragic circumstances and move her to a foster family. Years later, the girl confronts the traumas of her childhood.
Seven-year-old Maria (Lily-Beau Leach) grows up in a contradictory world. What should be a space for play, a castle out of a Disney animation, is a fortress of garbage that she stumbles over at the doorstep. Maria's mother, Cynthia (Hayley Squires), aspires to be a magical guide in her daughter's childhood, but she suffers from hoarding disorder and sprays the stench of decay into their home. The boundary between a childhood with a boundlessly loving parent and a pathological environment for upbringing is very fluid. This is also recognized by social services in tragic circumstances.
Cynthia's idyllic serenity is interrupted when the girl is plucked from a sea of waste and transferred to a foster family, where she is given socially acceptable care. Luna Carmoon boldly depicts teenage Maria's (Saura Lightfoot Leon) confrontation with her past, where her mother calls black the white and the suffocating pile of waste the titular hoards.
The British debutante's film is an immersive experience that, at times, turns the stomach upside down with the repelling smells emanating from the screen. It presents naturalistic images and unsettles with a dreamlike (or nightmarish) atmosphere as Michael (Joseph Quinn) enters Maria's life. Their shared play is tinged with uncomfortable ambiguity and ritualistic madness, provoking the girl to confront memories of a difficult childhood and grief. Recognized at the Venice Film Festival, "Hoard" has secured a place for the young director among the talented British debutantes.
Michał Sołtysek
