Writer-director Leanne Davis shares how she channelled the experience of her mother’s early onset of dementia into her debut short film, A Last Resort – an offbeat yet ultimately uplifting tragicomedy set during a British seaside holiday…
How would you describe A Last Resort?
It's funny with shorts, because if you say what it's about, you can kind of give away the film. It deals with some really meaty topics such as death and terminal illness, but at the heart of it is a love story between a mother and a daughter. I wanted to write this story pretty much since my own mum got ill, which will be about twelve years ago now, and she died in February 2020. I wasn't even a writer at that point, but I just wanted to make something out of everything that I felt. I wanted to write a love story to show that even in the darkness there is light, which is the backbone and the heart of all my work. I want to write stuff that’s hopeful, because life is shit and can be really painful and really dark and really bleak – but without hope, what is there?
When did you decide that you wanted to turn that story into a film?
I started writing a comedy drama when my mum was ill and that was going to be a TV show. That went to Amazon in America and we had big talks about big things, but they wanted to go in a very different direction – so because it was such a personal piece, we parted ways. I was like, ‘Maybe this will never get made as a TV show, so instead I’ll write it as a short film and then I can have the story that I want to tell encapsulated.’ We were due to shoot in April 2020, but my mum died in the middle of development, and we also had to keep pushing it back because of COVID. We ended up shooting it like a year-and-a-half later when I was eight-and-a-half months pregnant with my second child – so it was kind of a now-or-never thing. It was really cathartic to be able to channel all that grief and pain into something that I felt was really positive.
My voice as a writer is to always undercut the darkness with some humour and light. When my mum was ill, that's how we got through it
Tragicomedy is something that I think Midlands filmmakers do really well, and this film is a great example of that. Was it difficult to strike a balance between the laughs and the emotional gut punches?
My voice as a writer is to always undercut the darkness with some humour and light. When my mum was ill, that's how we got through it – we just laughed so much once we got over the initial shock that came from the early onset of Alzheimer's. Ultimately, Alzheimer's is always written about either in a really bleak and depressing way or as a bit of a comedy trope, so with this film, I wanted to show it in all its messy glory. There were so many comedic moments throughout the years with my mum and her illness. It’s dark, but it’s how we cope.
What other inspirations did you draw from to create the tone?
On a Friday night, my dad would often go down to the pub with the lads, so my mum and I would stay in and watch sitcoms like Only Fools and Horses and Blackadder. In Blackadder Goes Forth, that final scene where they go over the top… How you can go between light and dark like that always inspired me. All my work is generally character-based with a very British sensibility. I also went to Pinterest and started pinning pictures of aesthetics I liked, and that’s when I came across the photographer Martin Parr’s seminal work, A Last Resort, which is all of eighties Liverpool – and everything about it screamed my childhood. There are shots at the start of the film which are ultimately recreations of his work, and he had a massive influence on the aesthetics of the piece.
How did you find the experience of being a first-time director, overall?
I love writing, but directing gave me a voice that just takes that into new realms. I think the fact that I was pregnant made me feel so powerful. My body was doing one of the most miraculous things it will ever be able to do: produce life. While my body was being so creative, I was also being creative, so it just felt like every part of my being was. It was brilliant. Of course, there are a few shots in there that still make me go “Aaagghh!” and it kills me, but I'm told that's normal. I'm really proud of what I've achieved.
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