an Elisium Film
The Story
A devout mother desperate for security, hemmed in by her rigid beliefs.
A free-spirited, nature-loving daughter trying to forge her own path in life.
The collision of two polar opposite perspectives creates a raw, intimate reckoning between faith, freedom, and the needs that neither know how to express.
When her daughter returns home from her first year of studying as a nurse, clashes between Becca and young Violet are bound to arise. In the absence of her only daughter and constantly-traveling husband, Becca’s life revolves entirely around her church and rigid Christian values – an uptight ball of loneliness and anxiety, her Bible is her armour. She tries haplessly to bond with her daughter, but Violet remains frustratingly out of reach, relaxed, if dismissive and secretive. Chalk and cheese.
After a chance admission by one of Violet’s old friends, to her dismay, Becca discovers that her daughter has left nursing school to pursue dance. Worse still, she’s in love with a young woman. Becca’s ideal worldview collapses, and, armed with self-righteous fury, she frantically rushes to disrupt their tryst, only to be met with the astonishing beauty of Violet’s reality.
Finding the two lovers in the local park, Becca is overwhelmed by the atmospheric, romantic resonance of the moonlit night, presenting Violet and her beloved with an ethereal beauty even Becca can’t deny. Broken and unsure in all her convictions, Becca walks away. For all her vulnerability about her own situation, this moment is greater than anything she understands.
The filmmakers
WRITER / DIRECTOR
Simon Bolton-Gabrielsen is based in Yorkshire in the UK, and has produced, directed and co-produced multiple award-winning shorts, including a student Academy Award-winner. Simon produces commercial film, and is the founder of Yorkshire Screenwriters, a community for emerging writers from the post-industrial northern English region. ,He is a film lecturer at Leeds Arts University, northern England’s only dedicated arts university. As a director and writer, he pursues independent short and feature productions that combine a fervent visual creativity with strong social and philosophical context, and visions of beauty and romance. He is a husband and father of three, with two queer daughters, and one who plays the baritone saxophone… loudly.
PRODUCER
Originally from Lebanon, Yara Gharios is a Leeds-based producer and filmmaker with a background as a writer. Her work spans narrative, documentary, and commercial projects, exploring themes of identity and human connection. In 2025, her commercial short film “Break The Wall” for the Professional Squash Association won Screen Yorkshire’s Two Weeks To Make It competition and was screened at the Spirit of Independence Festival. Alongside her production work, Yara is also a published author, screenwriter, and freelance editor, bringing a strong storytelling foundation to all her projects.