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JEEPERS KEEPERS
HOARD British newcomer Luna Carmoon’s distinctive debut comes straight from the heart…
Hoard was never going to be seen,’ director Luna Carmoon confides to Teasers during the Venice Film Festival. ‘I was going to top myself and leave this story that I wrote, this 20-page story, at the bottom of my bed.’ Suicide is no joking matter, but Carmoon is serious. ‘I was in a strange place. One of my first feature projects just got ghosted. And if you’re someone who has nothing to fall back on, these things are heartbreaking. The whole thing can take you down to rock bottom.’
Thankfully, Carmoon picked herself up and turned her short story into the script for Hoard, an emotionally wrought look at an orphaned, grieving teen, Maria (newcomer Saura Lightfoot-Leon), embroiled in a torrid affair with a charismatic but damaged older man, Michael (Joseph Quinn). ‘It came from a place of venom and sadness,’ says Carmoon. ‘When you feel so disfigured inside, you want people to feel the disfigurement on the outside.’
As the title suggests, the film deals with the issue of hoarding possessions, via Maria’s mother (Hayley Squires). Like so much of Hoard, it came from a personal place. ‘My nan was a hoarder,’ says Carmoon, recalling that her drawers were full of everything from buttons to magic-eye illustrations. But the way Carmoon sees it, ‘hoarding’ has other, more metaphysical meanings. ‘There’s a hoarding of grief in the film, there’s a hoarding of love. There’s a hoarding of all sorts.’
Wowing audiences wherever it’s played, the film scored three prizes in Venice, including a ‘special mention’ for Lightfoot-Leon’s showstopping performance. ‘I knew that Europe would get it more than the Brits,’ Carmoon says, believing that international film folk would accept ‘the ugly’ side of her characters. Put simply, it’s how she sees life. ‘We live in a strange time where we want people to be better. But that’s not the world that we live in.’
HOARD OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 10 MAY.
Q&A
Joseph Quinn
What first attracted you to Hoard?
I remember being sent the script, reading it and being totally disturbed and compelled. And after I had aZoom with Luna, she’s not the kind of person you forget about. She makes such a strong impression on you. And I thought I would love to help this person make this film.
How would you describe your character, Michael?
He’s a duplicitous, adulterous, manipulative guy, but he’s insane. Because he’s madly in love… being deeply in love with someone is a form of madness, and you’re completely at the disposal of that person. And you’re powerless over that person. And it’s a really vulnerable place to be.
You’ve been in big productions like Stranger Things and the upcoming Gladiator 2. How does this compare? It’s amazing, the production team that Luna has, and the support that she has, and they’re rallying around her.
Because everything is about commerce now, and understandably so. Obviously, everyone needs to pay their bills. But doing something for the art of it is becoming impossible. It’s becoming really, really, really hard. This really felt like a labour of love. The fuel in the engine was nothing but creative. Nobody’s going to get a holiday home out of this!