The Watcher Self
Synopsis
Cora (Karen French) begins her day facing the consequences of a nightmare. Struggling to maintain a normal routine, she engages in a series of emotionally detached encounters and experiences a confusing psychological connection with the strange and elusive Van (Julian Shaw). Then echoes from the past threaten to derail her tenuous state of mind, and Cora becomes increasingly dislocated from her surroundings. Is she going insane, or is it something else? The Watcher Self is about what remains when the layers of sanity are gradually stripped away... and what may or may not be real.
Details
- Year
- 2015
- Type of project
- Features
- Running time
- 95 mins
- Format
- HD (DSLR)
- Director
-
Matt Cruse 1st Feature
- Producer
- Matt Cruse, Phil Macdonald
- Editor
- Alex Weeks
- Screenwriter
- Matt Cruse
- Director of Photography
- Michelle Tofi
- Production Designer
- Stephanie Palgrave-Brown
- Sound
- Lewis Clark
- Composer
- Paul Sumpter
- Principal cast
- Karen French, Julian Shaw
Categories
Production Status
Production Company
Matt Cruse
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.
The Scarlet Tunic
Director: Stuart St Paul
Year: 1998
In nineteenth century rural England, a German hussar serving with King George III's personal cavalry, Matthaus Singer, falls madly in love with Frances Groves, the only daughter of a West Country solicitor. Based on the short story 'The Melancholy Hussar' by Thomas Hardy
Marriage Test
Director: Sara Nourizadeh
Year: 2026
Set in a mosque waiting room in 1980s South Wales, and inspired by the true story of writer-director Sara Nourizadeh's parents, a young couple whose relationship crossed boundaries of culture, faith and expectation. At a time when Iranian politics dominated UK headlines and shaped public attitudes, a Welsh woman and her Iranian fiancé prepare for an Islamic conversion ceremony – a requirement they must fulfil if they are to marry. What follows is a quietly charged and emotionally intimate portrait of two people trying to navigate a moment that is both deeply personal and subtly political. As they wait for the ceremony to begin, small details – a trembling hand, a whispered joke, a fleeting moment of doubt – reveal the emotional stakes beneath the surface. Their conversation dances between humour and tension, affection and uncertainty, reflecting the push and pull of family pressures, cultural misunderstandings, and their own hopes for the future. Authentic VHS archive footage of the real couple is interwoven within this scripted drama, grounding the film in lived experience and offering an unexpectedly tender glimpse into the decades that followed.
Foreign Bodies
Director: Lysander Wong
Year: 2025
A simple itch descends into an outbreak with many legs. Certain things will always find their way to the surface. An exploration into the horror of having a body, of unbelonging.