During an ante-natal hospital appointment, a couple are mysteriously transported to a bleak frozen forest. Lost in the woods, savaged by the cold, unable to speak and hunted by a terrifying beast they stumble upon an abandoned cabin. So begins a struggle for survival in which they must face the hostile elements, malign magical forces and a truly terrible choice.

Interview with Writer/Director/Producer Claire Coaché and Lisle Turner

Congratulations! Why did you make your film?

CLAIRE. Thank you. We made Cold in response to our own experience of losing two babies in pregnancy, one as a termination for medical reasons and one as a miscarriage. 1 in 4 pregnancies doesn't progress to full term so this devastating experience is happening all around us all the time and yet it is still not widely discussed or represented.

We are both artists and this felt like a way of us both understanding what had happened to us. We want to share that as widely as possible so that other people who haven't had this experience can understand and empathise and people who have had this experience if they choose to watch, can feel seen.

There is now even more political imperative for us to share the film. I believe choosing to terminate a pregnancy is unequivocally the right of the person who is pregnant. Termination for medical reasons was an enormously difficult thing to go through at all stages, making the decision, physically going through medical abortion and recovering from it both physically and mentally and my procedure was legal, safe and funded by our National Health Service. I want that right for all women regardless of where they live.

We hope that people can watch this, empathise as human beings and then treat each other more kindly.

LISLE. The trauma of baby loss is so much more immediate and profound for women that Claire was forced to deal with the physical and emotional impact of the situation immediately. During the second miscarriage, she experienced near-fatal blood loss. In my head I failed to take care of my unborn sons and the woman that I love so there was a lot of shame, guilt and anger. But I didn't process that until we made the film so it was a vital catharsis for me. We also quite simply wanted to make something in remembrance of Bodhi and Brock and putting their names at the end of the film was important to me.

Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?

It is a beautifully shot, very moving and magical piece of work. It doesn't shy away from the darkness but it does return to the light. It's a thing of beauty born of pain and finding the capacity to make that change is important for all of us.

How do personal and universal themes work in your film?

Cold is a deeply personal story but universal because this subject affects so many people.

LISLE: We chose a fairytale medium as an age-old way of making difficult truths digestible. Fairytales traditionally served as morality tales with a terrible choice at their core. Characters that felt like archetypes and recognisable story tropes felt appropriate for such a universal human experience. It also enabled us to have enough creative distance to tell the story and make the work relatable rather than confessional.

CLAIRE: We wanted to reflect a range of experiences so as part of the writing process I interviewed 12 other women who had experienced pregnancy and baby loss. We chose to tell the story mostly without words so that the audience can relate their own experiences more directly. Marcel Marceau, the French mime artist, said "Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us without words". That felt appropriate for Cold.

How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?

CLAIRE: Cold has been a long time in the making. It began life as a stage play developed in the UK with Bristol Old Vic. We'd performed a scratch at the Barbican Centre and were getting ready for production when Covid arrived.

LISLE: With the theatres closed we decided to pivot to film-making. We started with a prose story, devised action with the cast from that starting point and during the rehearsal period photographed storyboards. We then condensed that material into a shooting script.

CLAIRE: We built a set inside a theatre closed to the public - a frozen forest with 6-metre tall trees, a log cabin and a lot of snow - and then we created practical in-camera effects using theatre techniques. A blizzard was created with a leaf blower, a sunrise was a lantern on a boom arm, a foetus in situ was a puppet and so on.

LISLE: The shoot yielded some amazing footage and then we post-produced it as a conventional feature. It's a strange but beautiful hybrid of theatre and film.

What type of feedback have you received so far?

LISLE: Cold has had a really positive response. It premiered at the London International Mime Festival in Jan 2022 and then went on to tour 35 international film festivals winning 27 awards including 12 for best film. We have now released it for free and it is generating substantial numbers on YouTube and a great review in The Guardian newspaper.

CLAIRE: A viewer at a recent screening said 'This is like a road map for healing' - we'll definitely take that one.

Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?

CLAIRE: We didn't know how people would respond to Cold because it is so emotionally honest about something that is socially taboo. Initially, we weren't quite sure what the hybrid theatre/film thing we made was and are delighted that it has been received so well as a feature film.

LISLE: This has also changed our creative practice moving forward and we are collaborating on several new projects with this working method.

What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?

We are delighted to be featured on www.wearemovingstories.com, we want as many people as possible to watch Cold and engage with its subject matter.

Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?

Journalists would really help us spread the word.

What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?

To talk about pregnancy, baby loss and medical termination with openness and compassion.

What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?

How do make a decision when there are no good outcomes?

Would you like to add anything else?

Thank you for featuring our film. It means a lot to us.

What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?

We're just completing an anthology of shorts by a diverse group of writers about identity, we starting research on the next feature that we'll shoot in August next year and we're working with a theatre in the Arctic Circle in Norway to create a show that celebrates the momentous milestones of human existence: birth, childhood, adulthood, elderhood and death.

Interview: May 2024

We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela

Cold

Length: 1:22:58

Director: Claire Coaché & Lisle Turner

Producer: Alison King

Writer: Claire Coaché & Lisle Turner

About the writer, director and producer:

First-time film director but established theatre maker CLAIRE COACHÉ (The Idiot Colony, Scorched) and her husband playwright and film-maker LISLE TURNER (The Idiot Colony, Here And Now) combined their award-winning skills in both mediums to create a truly unique piece of work.

Cold is co-written by theatre maker CLAIRE COACHÉ and her husband playwright and film-maker LISLE TURNER. Together they run Open Sky, a British production company that makes film, theatre and digital theatre.

ALISON KING is a multi-award-winning theatre producer, Cold is her first film producer credit. ALISON is the Chief Executive of Turtle Key Arts, a performance arts company with an emphasis on making art available to all. In 2023 ALISON was awarded an honorary doctorate from Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and UEA for her contribution to theatre.

LISLE TURNER is the creative director of Open Sky. His producing credits include Secret Policeman’s Ball: Ball in the Hall for Amnesty International (BAFTA & Rose D’or Nominated), nine shorts broadcast on BBC & Channel 4, series of MicroPlays with Open Sky and Cold.

Key cast: Janet Etuk (Falda), Jacob Meadows (Ulf), Claire Coaché (Hex Doctor)

Looking for: journalists

Facebook: Open Sky

Twitter: @OpenSkyAhead

Instagram: @openskyahead

Website: Open Sky

Other: YouTube

Made in association with: Open Sky produced by Turtle Key Arts in association with Courtyard Hereford

Funders: Arts Council England National Lottery Funding with financial support from The Elmley Foundation, Herefordshire Community Foundation & our generous crowdfunders.

Where can I watch it next and in the coming month?

After a successful run at London International Mime Festival and 35 film festivals we have now released Cold on YouTube free to watch so this can reach as wide and audience as possible.