As a writer, I have always been passionate about telling stories about the female voice, and exploring the female experience. When it came to the point, a few years ago, where I felt (semi) ready to embark on writing my first feature, I had a clear sense of the kind of story I wanted to tell. That project, LAPWING, is now my debut feature film as screenwriter, releasing in UK cinemas and on VOD from November 2021.
My background as a writer began in theatre, where I worked as a playwright. Screenwriting was very much something I felt unsure about – I was sure I didn’t have the skills or the experience. But, when I began working with director Philip Stevens, when he directed several national shows I had scripted, he told me that my writing had a filmic quality to it and I started to feel intrigued.
This was when I started to watch films in a different way. Whilst I’d always enjoyed film, I’d never watched it in an analytical way, asking questions about choices the writer had made. Learning to differentiate between work made by a writer-director, and that of a writer/director team, was crucial. Phil and I had established a great creative dynamic and we knew we wanted to continue to collaborate, so I was keen to learn how a writer can put their voice alongside the vision of a director.
I read more and more screenplays: work that I admired, work I disagreed with, and work that I aspired to be like. The work that thrilled me the most was work that jumped off the page with creativity and identity. The scripts of writer-directors Andrea Arnold, David Lowry, Jane Campion and Lynne Ramsay, and then exploring the journey from page to screen for writers who work with directors, such as Sally Wainwright, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Heidi Thomas.
Meanwhile, I had started writing short films. The process of writing an effective short film teaches you so much about writing sparsely, whilst communicating the intensity of an entire world and character backstory that you’ve created. I found that I loved that, and wanted to explore it in more detail.
Writing short films enabled me to discover the themes that would remain in all the work I’ve created subsequently. Through my collaboration with Phil, with whom I share so many creative interests and passions, it became clear we are both passionate about telling stories about the present through the lens of the past. We both love folklore and mythology, and Phil’s background is in historical film and performance, so it became natural for us to start exploring historical settings for our next project.
Of course, the past isn’t necessarily the obvious – or easiest – setting for low budget independent film. But the story of Lapwing began to present itself. The setting of the Tudor period – a time I’ve always been fascinated by, as it feels like the start of an emotional and intellectual renaissance that connects directly to who we are today – and the location of the rural, isolated Lincolnshire coastline, where I am from, were already clear. From there, I started playing with ideas and moods that I knew were important, compelling and visually captivating for me. The image of a young woman in the sand dunes covered in blood wouldn’t budge, and I knew she was silent. She didn’t speak.
I initially wrote Lapwing as a short film, exploring the themes of the female voice, suppression, sisterhood, abuse and resilience in the face of seeming hopelessness. Phil and I had previously had success with funding for short films, so we approached Lapwing in the same way. We were told we couldn’t make a historical short film on a small budget. The challenge made us all the more determined, and as we talked more about the world of the film, the protagonist Patience’s journey and the other characters around her, it became clear there was so much more potential here. We decided we were going to make a feature.
The writing process was thrilling and exhilarating. We decided we would shoot the film in the Summer of 2017, so at the start of that year, I started writing the script. It was a frenzied process, and I’m sure that now, I’d probably approach the story differently. But there was something freeing about the process at the time, and I wouldn’t change how it happened. Patience’s story flowed, and I hope that the testament to is that I watch the film now and feel every bit as passionate about her, her story and the experiences that she has to undergo in the film in order to metaphorically find her voice and be able to express her selfhood in the way she needs to.
Lapwing tells of Patience’s life on the saltmarshes of Lincolnshire in 1555. She lives an oppressed existence under the tyranny of her abusive brother in law David. But when a group of illegal travellers arrive, seeking passage out of the country to escape the law, Patience develops an intense, immediate connection with young traveller Rumi. The bond she feels with him, and the passion she experiences, enable her to see her life for what it is, and to start to gain a sense of the greater world of possibility that might exist beyond the horizons she’s known for her life so far. But as Patience grows within herself and begins to rebel against David, his need for power surges and he tightens the band of control that he exerts over this small community. Everyone is caught in the trap of his hatred, bigotry and misogyny, and as Patience’s quest for freedom becomes ever more determined, David’s descent into mania and paranoia unleashes violent, bloody consequences for everyone involved when he seeks revenge for Patience’s disobedience.
The themes of emotional abuse, coercive control and the female voice are at the heart of Patience’s story and have remained there throughout its journey from initial image to short film to feature. They have been constant, and I think those key elements have enabled me as a screenwriter to keep my voice inherent in the work, whilst collaborating with Phil’s beautiful vision for the story, and the wonderful cinematography of our DOP Stewart MacGregor. All these key creative elements have come together and the collaboration has enabled us to explore a message of personal empowerment in the face of the darkest times any human being can know. The film seeks to unlock the difficult emotions we face in hard times – both in the experiences of the characters, and the journey audiences go on with this film: to examine the complexity of individual experience, forcing us to ask difficult questions of the deeply damaging effects of single-mindedness in dangerously closed situations.
Lapwing is released by Bulldog Film Distribution from 26th November 2021 and is available to watch in selected UK cinemas and on VOD. More information here.
Laura is a playwright and screenwriter with 10 years’ experience, passionate about exploring emotion-driven narratives that ask questions about who we are today, often through the lens of the past. Laura has had more than 40 theatre plays produced across China, UK and Europe, working with theatres including the Almeida, Customs House South Shields and Hull Truck. For the screen she has worked with BFI, BBC, BBC New Creatives, BFI Network, Urban Apache Films, Lost Eye Films, Hyperreal Films and World Serpent Productions. Her BBC New Creatives short film INSIDE premiered on BBC4 in May 2020 and she has written for BBC EastEnders: E20 and BBC Holby City and Casualty shadow schemes. Laura currently has feature and television projects in development with Inceptive Films, Seahorse Films, CineK Films, Wild Beast Productions and MV Productions, and she is a member of BIFA Springboard, BAFTA Crew, Badass.Gal and the European Cultural Parliament’s Future Generations initiative, and a Finalist in the Women of the Future 2021 Awards. Her first feature film LAPWING received theatrical release in 2021. She is represented by Rob Kraitt at Casarotto Ramsay.
