Director: Andrea Arnold
UK/2003/23mins/s16mm/color
Wasp was Andrea Arnold's third short film.
Described by British newspaper the Guardian
as 'socialist realist film poetry' it has won 30
international festival awards and the Oscar for best
short film at the 2005 Academy Awards. Most
recently Arnold directed her debut feature Red
Road, winning the 2006 Cannes jury prize.
23 year old Zoë ought to be wild and free but she's
Already got four kids. Zoë is broke and her kids are
Hungry. She abandons them for an old flame while
Wasps are hunting for food around a rubbish bin.
"I write usually because I have an image
in my head that I can't shake off and
that is how Wasp started. That particular
image forms the climax of the film.
Everything else is a mix of my childhood
and imagination.
The main aim for the film was to try and
show the central character Zoë in all
her complexity. I know the way she
treats her kids is not good, verging on
abuse really, but I wanted to show why
she might do that and for the audience
to have empathy for her as well as the
kids. I wanted to show how a person's
circumstances and environment
influences the way they essentially are.
I wanted people to understand her
behavior instead of just condemning it.
This was my main goal for the film."
Andrea Arnold on Wasp
There is no commentary for this film.
Courtesy of Andrea Arnold, Kurzfilmagentur Hamburg and Channel 4/UKFC
