F
ilms often stem from the tiniest of seeds. Take Claire Oakley’s absorbing debut
Make Up.
After writing a never-made short about a girl seeing fleeting glimpses of another woman in a foreign city, Oakley twisted the idea to examine the blossoming sexuality and inner turmoil of a young woman. “I wanted to look at the tricks that the mind plays on you to disguise what you might really be feeling,” she explains.
Ruth was not at all sure joining the Dexter Reenactment Society was a good idea.
In the film, 19 year-old Ruth (Three Girls star Molly Windsor) arrives at a Cornwall holiday park where her boyfriend Tom (Joseph Quinn) works. When she discovers strands of hair and a lipstick print, she begins to believe he’s cheating on her. Fuelled by paranoia, she’s also thrown into a maelstrom of confusion by fellow resident Jade (Stefani Martini), a make-up artist who takes a shine to the vulnerable Ruth.