Hoard

Audacious and unsettling, Luna Carmoon’s debut feature is an uncompromising tale that explores the repressed trauma and grief of its damaged protagonist against the backdrop of her sexual awakening.

Carmoon draws on her own experience for this visceral psychological drama that won her the award for Best First Feature at the BFI London Film Festival 2023. The first section is set in 1984, where Maria (played as a child by Lily-Beau Leach) lives with her mother, Cynthia (Hayley Squires), an obsessive hoarder; from Maria’s perspective, the mountains of festering rubbish are a magical kingdom replete with hidden treasures.

Years later, the now-teenage Maria (Saura Lightfoot Leon) is a struggling misfit in foster care; when she meets Michael (Joseph Quinn), another troubled teen, they develop an intense and almost animalistic attraction.