Joseph Quinn (Michael) and Saura Lightfoot-Leon (Maria) in Hoard
GETTY, VERTIGO RELEASING
Hoard
was never going to be seen,’ director Luna Carmoon confides to Teasers during the Venice Film Festival. ‘I was going to top myself and leave this story that I wrote, this 20-page story, at the bottom of my bed.’ Suicide is no joking matter, but Carmoon is serious.
‘I was in a strange place. One of my first feature projects just got ghosted.
And if you’re someone who has nothing to fall back on, these things are heartbreaking. The whole thing can take you down to rock bottom.’
Thankfully, Carmoon picked herself up and turned her short story into the script for Hoard, an emotionally wrought look at an orphaned, grieving teen, Maria (newcomer Saura Lightfoot-Leon), embroiled in a torrid affair with a charismatic but damaged older man, Michael (Joseph Quinn). ‘It came from a place of venom and sadness,’ says Carmoon. ‘When you feel so disfigured inside, you want people to feel the disfigurement on the outside.’