Throughout lockdown, many have thrived creatively. From art, to music, to baking banana bread; for some the opportunity to take a step back from the 9-5 has been a dream. For others, the pressure to achieve has been unbearable. The prospect of finally pursuing that passion project they’ve always talked about is nothing but a mounting pressure. On top of pandemic stress, setting yourself a goal to be creative only insights more duress upon your daily slog. The more you put it off, the worse you feel.
Sound familiar?
Que Kaninchen; a German short film written, directed and starring Bristol-based actress Savannah Betts, exploring mental isolation within a nightmarish dystopian prison. The film follows Laura (Betts), a young German woman who awakens in a room with no memory of how she got there. As she investigates her unfamiliar surroundings, Laura must battle with a mysterious, deprecating force which curiously echoes the deepest insecurities of her own mind.
Filmed in Betts’ bedroom with nothing but a small digital camera, Kaninchen was brought to life during the first national lockdown, with the idea itself being coincidentally pre-pandemic . Described by the filmmaker as an exploration of her own battles with grief, the film came into being following the suicide of Betts’ father. Her internal struggle required an outlet; reverberating the nations own struggles with mental health throughout lockdown at colossal capacity. In processing creatively, she was able to initiate a development of her own orchestrated isolation, through a visionary awareness of the simultaneous ongoing lockdown. Betts’ ability to mould her own emotional journey to that of her audience is admirable, humbly sharing her pain with an assemblage of equally isolated spectators.
The effect this takes is rather powerful, with the added awareness of the film’s artistic evolution casting an eerie shadow on its consumption. Betts’ film offers a chilling and personal insight into mental health far beyond the boundaries of lockdown depression, with Kaninchen providing so much more than just another pandemic project. The combination of her own experience of grief with an informed and topical counterpart tugs firmly at the heartstrings, delivering an emotional impact that remains well beyond its 4 minute run time.
As such, the intrinsic oppression of Kaninchen’s inescapable limbo incidentally sheds light on a world at war with itself; silently fighting the internal force of solitary stress. Like Laura, we are all battling with our inner selves on a daily basis, desperately trying to escape the prison of our isolated psyches. Despite its replication of this shared frustration, Betts’ film is in fact a triumph of lockdown creativity, and a fine example of talent, strength and determination working as one to turn even the most painful vexations into art.
You can watch Kaninchen via the link available here.
About The Filmmaker:
Savannah Betts is an actress and writer, born and raised in Hong Kong. Since graduating from Northumbria University in 2015 with a 1st B.A. Hons in Performance, the German-South African artist has performed in various different stage shows and short films across the UK. Now based in Bristol, Savannah is best known for her her original comedy web series, S#*! Talk that was released in March 2020. Prior to lockdown, Savannah was touring a production of And Then Came for Me, a stage play by James Still based on the life of Holocaust survivor, Eva Schloss.
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