Written by Cathy Sole
Directed by Albert Bullock
Produced by Teena Dernaika
TEENAVISION Productions
Great Yarmouth
Logline
After losing her father to drugs, a young woman begins copying her late father’s otherworldly nighttime antics in order to feel closer to him.
Addiction · Grief · Reconciliation · Working-class life · The British seaside
Synopsis
Jayne is in her early twenties, stuck living in a filthy beach hut in Great Yarmouth.
Then her father Brian, who walked out years ago, lived rough, and is now visibly dying, turns up on the beach. In a surreal, dreamlike sequence, Jayne chases her father through his final days, catching him dancing in the ocean, howling at the moon.
After his death, Jayne is unable to tear herself away from the sea. With a mother who uses Jayne as a piggy bank, and no real job prospects, will Jayne be able to look grief in the face before the tide swallows her too?
The town
Our lead actress, who also wrote the film, is from the town herself, and the rest of the crew beyond our core three is drawn from Great Yarmouth too, giving local talent and students genuine hands on filmmaking experience and paid work on a professional set.
This is a story about the town’s own struggles, told by someone who grew up there, and we want the town to see itself reflected on screen, so we’re planning screenings at local schools and community spaces alongside our festival run.
Writer’s Vision
From Cathy
I began writing about addiction in Great Yarmouth, the town I grew up in, which happens to be one of the most politically and socially volatile towns in the country. Naturally, coming from where I come from, I wanted to write a story that promoted empathy towards people who come from rundown coastal communities and who struggle with addiction.
The film is about an estranged father, Brian, who returns to Great Yarmouth and refuses to leave the beach. His daughter, Jayne, catches him dancing in the sea at night and devouring the sand, representative of Brian’s relationship with the turbulent local landscape. After Brian’s death, followed by a surreal ritualistic funeral on the beach, Jayne begins copying Brian’s strange nighttime antics in order to make herself feel closer to him.
After a dalliance with the ocean and death, the film ends with a shot of Jayne overlooking the ocean. It is up to the audience to decide whether she will rid herself of her bad habits and process her grief, or whether she will end up buried alive like her dad.
Director’s Vision
From Albert
A naked man on the brink of death, basking in moonlight and letting the waves hit his blue torso. That sold me.
A film by the seaside, exploring grief, family, and addiction has bountiful visual potential.
Look & Feel
Muted, grain-rich image quality reminiscent of 32mm. Juxtaposition between day (grief, reality) and night (addiction, fantasy); the gaudy and artificial colours of the shop fronts and the grey beach and sandstone flats.
Where we are
In development. Reaching out to charities and organisations for partnerships.
Independent. Nothing secured.
Shoot spring 2027, 3 to 4 days, Arri Alexa, under 10 person crew.
Great Yarmouth. Beach, sea wall, beach hut, pub exterior.
Partnerships and investment
Casting, crew and locations in Great Yarmouth
3 to 4 days on Arri Alexa, under 10 person crew
Total budget
£4,000
Total investment required
This investment sought will catalyse production, enabling us to bring this haunting narrative to life and engage audiences through its poignant themes of loss and memory.
Partners
Living Grief UK
Great Yarmouth
Interest in the film for bereavement work, and for schools programming in the town. Then a targeted festival run, five submissions budgeted.
Team
Previously made ‘Love Is Real’ (2025) together.
Best British Short Film, Director’s Notes Film Festival 2026, for ‘Love Is Real’
Interdisciplinary writer and actor from Great Yarmouth. BA Creative Writing (UEA, 2022). National Youth Theatre Rep Company 2024 to 25. Actor on a new BBC series 2026. Shortlisted for the Curtis Brown Creative Queer Writers Award and selected for CBC’s Breakthrough Novel Writing Course. Borrowed Time is Cathy’s first screenplay and a companion piece to her novel in progress.
Award winning writer and director born and raised in London. BA Film Studies (University of Warwick, 2023). Film credits include Destroyer (2023) and Love Is Real (2025), the latter of which won Best British Short Film at Director’s Notes Film Festival 2026.
Lebanese-German, London based indie film producer with credits including Love Is Real (2025, dir. Albert Bullock), One More (2023), SESTRA (2025), and The Screen (2025, dir. Hugo André, post-production). She holds a BA in Filmmaking Production from MetFilm School.
Support
Donations opening soon