7 to 10

When Angelika May brought to me her story of overcoming trauma and proposed to take the leading role on a short film depicting her own struggle, I had my doubts. Was I able to bring a respectful yet truthful depiction of a sexual assault survivor? Could I appeal to a wide audience in a meaningful way with such an important and relevant subject? I reminded myself that those were all good reasons for why making this project and that the realism we have is something really especial.

We wanted to make a dark comedy as a way of reaching wider audiences with such a dark theme and the challenge of making it work attracted me very much. I had done a similar job on my previous short film PMS with raging female hormones.

I also wanted to be respectful of audiences that might be survivors themselves and so my wish was to avoid victim voyeurism, especially in the assault scene, implying the trauma as a respectful use of cinematic gaze.

Adding horror elements from a Halloween thematic to the semiotics of animal kingdom – bringing the idea of irrational animalistic nature when rape is concerned – in addition to a furious rock score, all in a truly compelling character study, brought Olivia’s story to life.

Angelika’s story.