September Says
Actress Ariane Labed (known from the films of Yorgos Lanthimos) makes her directorial debut with a haunting film adaptation of Daisy Johnson’s novel Sisters, about two sisters with an almost telepathic bond.
Sisters July and September – both around fifteen - are thick as thieves, though very different. September is protective and distrustful of others, while July is open to and curious about the world. Their dynamic is a concern to their single mum, Sheela, a moderately successful art photographer, who is unsure what to do with them. The sisters are outcasts at their high school in Oxford and escape into their own fantasy world. They constantly wear colourful costumes and play games such as ‘September says’ – the title of the film – in which July obediently does what September tells her to. When September is suspended from their school, July is left to fend for herself and begins to assert her own independence – which does not go unnoticed by September. Tension among the three women builds when they take refuge in an old holiday home in Ireland, where July finds her bond with September shifting in ways she cannot entirely understand or control – and a series of surreal encounters test the family to their limit, culminating in a shocking revelation.