Delphyne: Short Narrative 15min
A young girl is awakened to her burgeoning womanhood after an incident causes her to reassess her reality, which coincides with the beginning of her first menstruation.

Delphyne (meaning ‘womb’) discusses the stigma around menstruation. Addressing shame and acceptance, taboos around menstrual blood are told through a fabric-themed metaphor, and the conflict between a mother-daughter relationship; to find a shared unity and language to beat the conflict which projects itself in the shame metaphor that they’ve unwound and removed from their life.

The historical connotations of staining, feminine purity and the divide between private and public space as well as ownership of the body come into play. The coming of age theme is reflected in reference to her struggle with the self (alter-ego), struggle with the ‘other’ (male influence) and struggle with the home (her Mother).

The script is stylised in a theatrical form, taking the works of Russian writer Ludmilla Petrushevskaya as a background. The tone draws on Petrushevskaya’s depictions of intense female-driven, claustrophobic family relationships particularly between generations of women who pull at each other in close quarters. There is a fairy-tale element to the progress of the film, akin to the works of Petrushevskaya, and relating to my own Russian heritage and sense of displacement. I wanted to echo that in the nature of rural Suffolk and tie in a local folk atmosphere and elements of tradition, creating a strange bridge between Russian culture and rural England in the film; through the folk music, costume, focus on nature and element of ‘period’ where the setting appears timeless, caught between present day and an undefinable past. Through this lack of definable period/era to the film, I wanted to express how the issues around female bodily shame persist through the ages, and that the depiction of female physicality and sexuality still sits within an archaic framework.


CREDITS:
Directed, Produced and written by: Vasilisa Forbes
Line Producer: Elena Valeri
DOP: Ezequiel Romero
AC: Jack Lightfoot
Gaffer: Simon Battensby
Focus: Rob Hayward
Runner: Louis Sare
Director’s Assistant: Andrew Hancock
Sound: Delfina Witkowska
MUA: Frances Straker
Sound: Florian Sauvaire & Chris Lockington
Vocals: Tilly Moses
Grade: Michael Pearce
Stills: Nick Illot
Interior Location Manager: Fraser Williams 
Credits Design: Sam Norris

Cast:
Olivia Caley - Delphyne
Josie Ayers - Mother
Dante Bishop - Guy
Many thanks to the help of everyone involved.