This debut feature film by young Brit writer/director Daniel Grasskamp is a coming-of-age story that is sparse in both plot and dialogue. It’s the tale of a introverted 17 year old photography student Cat (Jodie Hirst) whose very lonely life centers around her cat who is not just her only friend but also the subject of all the photographs she takes.  That is about to change when she spots a pretty blond music student at her Brighton college who she eventually discovers is called April (Faye Sewell).  Initially she surreptitiously photographs April as often as she can, and then when gets home cuts out the image of Steven (Isaac Money) the boyfriend who was is the shot too.

When April discovers the photos and confronts Cat,  instead of cowering in response the shy girl actually asks April out on a date, to which Steven also tags along too.  He is kind of rattled as April will not have sex with him yet, and although she tells Cat with such certainty that she is straight, she still hops into bed with her very quickly nevertheless. Cue April’s angry mother physically throwing Cat out of the house, and Steven insisting that April now puts out for him.  Everyone has their own agenda here, but it is really up to the two teenage girls to work out what is best for them. 

This wee film made on a micro budget is obviously full of high hopes and good intentions, but its very slight story fails to engage one sufficiently to even be the slightest bit invested in its outcome.  The story is hardly new, but Grasskamp didn’t inject it with anything deeper at all that could possibly resonate with the audience.  The scenes of intimacy were awkward to say the least, and shows his discomfort in directing lesbian lovemaking. He wasn’t the first man to struggle here, as even in the acclaimed Blue Is The Warmest Color, Abdellatif Kechiche the director made the sex scenes embarrassing too watch.

Maybe Grasskamp should have chosen different subject matter for his first feature as men who successfully direct lesbian dramas are a very rare breed indeed, and one of the few is William Wyler.  When he directed The Childrens Hour in 1961, not only did everyone keep all their clothes on, but Shirley MacLaine one of the stars testifies, they never ever even mentioned the word ‘lesbian’ once.