The Courtship of The Lion

When Anwen’s estranged father dies, an impossible memory comes back to her with overwhelming force. In just a few days she buries her father, is attacked by a lion, comes across the still-bleeding corpse of a deer in the snow, and falls in love. This film challenges the security of the fairytale, the notion of ‘happily-ever-after’ and, negotiates memory, fantasy and hallucination. The story follows two strands of Anwen’s life: her past and her present. Memories of a fantastical Palladian house in perpetual winter, as she - Beauty - hides from a talking lion - the Beast - that interrupts her present story in the form of violent flashbacks and hallucinations. It becomes more and more difficult for Anwen to tell what is real and what is not. The hallucinations drive her back to the house her memories stem from so that she might confront whatever awful thing happened to her there. Anwen ultimately finds the Beast as a hansom, ailing man who has a lion tattoo across his chest. All her memories are then corrected: it was him she saw, not a real lion. Her childish mind was so affected by the apparent abandonment by father that she demonised her guardian in her memory. That is, until she has fallen in love with him, and he turns into a lion in front of her eyes; subverting her reality all over again. This film questions why desiring a partner in life who can provide for you is considered a childish fantasy, and also positions the loving Beast of the familiar tale as a predator. It subverts the expectations of fairytale and of reality to challenge the perception of the innocent story so many know and love.