Story

There were many inspirations for our screenplay Strawberry Fields. We wanted to explore women’s relationships, co-dependant relationships, dysfunctional families and destructive personalities, as well as fruit picking in Kent. We were interested in putting the themes and conflicts explored in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire into the transitory world of seasonal fruit picking, an unsafe, unreal space with no conventional rules.

The story of Strawberry Fields shows up the subtleties and nuances of sisters’ Gillian and Emily’s relationship. It charts Emily’s manipulative games and the complexity of loving someone with such difficult behaviour. It also shows Gillian’s withdrawing, raging and accepting that keeps her so stuck. It follows the roles that our love interest Kev, and others, play in influencing Gillian’s Journey.

Visual Style

Strawberry Fields has a bold, distinctive shooting style that takes us inside Gillian’s quiet and unusual world. We were interested in putting complicated people into a beautiful rural setting and to make their world timeless and placeless. This was a specific brief to the costume and design departments, creating a strange and transitory space that our characters are passing through.

The film has confined oppressive interiors and sundrenched glorious exteriors, hemming Gillian in when she battles with her sister. The luscious expansive views of nature highlight the beauty, freedom and openness all around her.

We were influenced by the shooting style of the film Somersault using handheld, stylized camerawork to create the lead character’s beautiful and innocent outlook on life. Seeing the world from Gillian’s perspective was essential for understanding her; a character who doesn’t articulate her needs and desires. The composer’s wordless vocals were also designed to emphasise Gillian’s struggle to voice her feelings.

The visual style was also inspired by the mesmerizing landscapes of Katalin Varga, the uplifting, saturated colours in My Summer of Love and the oppressive interiors of A Streetcar Named Desire.