There is a heart-wrenching moment in Greece when the character credited only as the Daughter – portrayed by Sarah Deakins, who also wrote and directed the dramatic short – leans close to her wheelchair-bound mother and implores, “Are you in there?”
It’s a question that the audience has been pondering in the minutes leading up to this moment. Deakins’ character has been rambling on about sex, her relationship, and her dissatisfaction with life, while the similarly credited Mother has said nothing at all.
Now, tears pool on the daughter’s eyelashes. She’s desperate to make a connection.
But Mother can’t reply. She’s in a catatonic state. Her hands lie limp on her lap, and her eyes are fixed on something only she can see: a moment in time deep inside her mind.
Reel People loves short films, and Greece is a top-notch specimen of the genre.
It manages to tackle numerous issues – aging parents, dementia and what happens when you might not get the closure you crave – in its 15 minutes, in a way that is nuanced, gripping, universal and rich with varying degrees of light and shadow.
Deakins started collecting accolades for Greece before it had even premiered. It screened at Hollywood Film Festival, the LA Femme International Film Festival and the Sunscreen West Film Festival, which is supported by the Academy of Motion Pictures (as in, “I’d like to thank the Academy…”).
Now, Deakins is up for a Leo Award for Best Performance by a Female in a Short Drama for her powerhouse turn as the emotionally wrought adult daughter of a catatonic senior (admirably portrayed by Yvonne Adalian).
“All of my scripts are about people struggling to connect with each other,” says Deakins in a recent interview.
“Mothers and daughters, fathers and sons: those relationships are most interesting to me, because those are the most important relationships at the beginning of your life, and they become the most fraught as you grow older.”
The film was championed early on by Shawn Williamson of Brightlight Pictures. Filming occurred over a couple of days, on a static Vancouver set and on location in Malibu (the latter standing in for Greece; the Jenner sisters – Kim Kardashian’s siblings – shot on the same stretch of beach that day, and Deakins’ small crew had to film around the unwieldy entourages and trailers).
Filmmaking is a far cry from the life that Deakins – who was born in the States and moved to Vancouver when she was a baby – had originally envisioned for herself. She’d trained to be a ballerina.
“I realized when I was around 17, what I loved about dance was the expression, the storytelling of it, and I knew I was going to have a short career as a dancer, but I knew if I went into acting, I could do it until the day I die,” says Deakins. “I thought, ‘I’d rather tell stories until the day I die.’”
As an actress, Deakins has amassed a long list of film and television credits, including The Final Cut, Antitrust, Supernatural, and Battlestar Galactica.
Greece wasn’t Deakins' first script to make it to the screen. Deakins penned 2012’s Late, which was directed by Jason R. Goode and screened at Cannes as part of Telefilm’s Not Short on Talent program.
But it does mark Deakins’ first time in the director’s chair.
Deakins had worked on Greece’s overarching monologue for many years, and “knew it inside and out,” says Deakins. “I knew that I wanted the film to be exactly the way that I wanted it to be.”
The daughter’s emotionally charged monologue runs the entire length of the 15-minute film, and Deakins did the monologue straight through each and every take.
“I couldn’t go back and watch the takes, because they’re 15 minutes long,” says Deakins. “I had to trust, ‘did we get that one?’”
So what does Deakins’ own mother think of a film that shines a spotlight on dysfunctional mother-daughter relationships?
Deakins’ mother saw the film in December when it screened as part of the Whistler Film Festival.
“It was terrifying because it’s a film about a mother and daughter that aren’t on good terms, and it’s emotional sitting next to your mother watching a grown woman on screen that I play trying to connect with this older woman,” says Deakins, who dedicated Greece to her mother and late grandmother.
“But I think she was pleased.”
Deakins is currently in development on a feature – Home Free – with Avi Federgreen in association with Brightlight Pictures.
Reel People is excited about the Leo Awards. We’ll be covering all three nights of the Leos (June 6, 13, and 14). Follow the events on Twitter (@sabrinarmf) or check us out online for next-day results and red carpet photos.
GREECE Trailer SEPT10 from Sarah Deakins on Vimeo.
