Press & Industry

Short synopsis

Matt, 24, accepts a late-night invitation to the London home of Sarah and Ed, a wealthy older couple. A sexual proposition becomes a darker game of power and control, as desire, class and consent collide.

Full synopsis

Matt, 24, arrives at the opulent London home of Sarah and Ed, an older married couple who have invited him for a sexual encounter. What begins as a charged proposition soon becomes harder to read. As drinks are poured and boundaries shift, each of the three begins to test what the others want, what they will permit and what they can be made to admit. Darkly funny and increasingly unsettling, three follows a seductive game of control in which desire, class and consent collide — and no one can agree on who is using whom.

A contained encounter

A complete 23-minute film, three places three characters inside a London home. The drama turns on shifting boundaries: what is offered, what is accepted, and who controls the terms of the encounter.

Performance and the frame

Carlyle’s approach begins with actors. His collaboration with Fabian Wagner ASC BSC uses the house, the distance between the characters and the camera’s viewpoint to heighten the tension. Jon Harris shapes its rhythm and withheld information; Danielle Bayliss’s production design gives the characters’ wealth and power a physical setting.

From the short to a new project

The short’s festival journey has opened further creative conversations. Isaac Gryn and Patrick McPherson are developing a feature that extends its characters and themes, with Robert Carlyle attached to direct.