Project Detail

The Pit and the Pendulum: A Study in Torture

Synopsis

An ordinary man is arrested in an unnamed Middle Eastern country. Suspected of terrorism, he is held for 'enhanced interrogation'. Alone in the dark, he hallucinates a series of psychological tortures. When he is rescued we discover the real brutality that he has been subjected to.

Details

Year
2013
Type of project
Shorts
Running time
15 mins
Format
Digital
Director
Fiona Bavinton
Producer
Clare Cahill, Patricia Rybarczyk, Fiona Bavinton
Executive Producer
Fiona Bavinton
Screenwriter
Fiona Bavinton
Director of Photography
Dawid Pietkiewicz
Sound
Alistair Locke
Composer
Doug Berwick
Principal cast
Stephen Marcus, Paul McGann, Jeffery Kissoon, Nicholas Farrell
Additional photography
Paul Jenkins

Categories

Production Status

Production Company

Compos Mentis Productions Ltd

W: www.composmentis.com
E: enquiries@composmentis.com

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

Je ne regrette rien Je ne regrette rien

Director: Fiona Bavinton

Year: 2020

Made entirely in Unreal, during lockdown in the UK, in a week in which VE day celebrations collided with Black Lives Matter protests, this film questions the persistence of nostalgia as a form of social control.

 About an Intimate Matter About an Intimate Matter

Director: Sandeep Kumar Paul

Year: 2026

Science teacher Swarna and her partner Driti move to a suburban town for a fresh start. When a student leaks intimate photos of Swarna online, school authorities turn her private life into a disciplinary issue. Official Selection Busan International Film Festival 2026 - World premiere

Denzel Baidoo as Marcus, forlorn at the dinner table. Clocks

Director: Yv Shells

Year: 2026

When Arlo arrives to find Marcus has cooked someone else’s favourite meal, a single question begins to unravel an evening that refuses to stay in the present. Through a fractured timeline set entirely within one dining room, we move between Marcus and Arlo and the relationship that came before, with Una, the woman he met at a late-night bus stop and once talked about marrying. The same table, the same chairs, the same arguments about trust, honesty and what it means to truly see someone. As the timelines bleed together, it becomes clear that Marcus has never fully left the past, and that Una’s ghost sits at every table he sets. When Arlo asks what her own favourite meal is and he cannot answer, the film’s quiet devastation lands completely. CLOCKS is a portrait of a man who loves generously but sees poorly, and the women who carry the cost. It asks what we owe the person in front of us while we are still in love with someone we lost, and whether a feeling ever truly ends.