A short film about a young woman desperate for intimacy who is forced to face the painful side of her sexuality when her loneliness and hunger for touch start gaining a rather painful physical form.
Currently in pre-production.
Shortlisted for Ffilm Cymuru’s Beacons Funding Scheme 2024.
STARVED explores the themes of loneliness, isolation and hunger for non-sexual touch and intimacy, as well as some of the fears and feelings often experienced by asexual people living in an overly sexualised world.
Having grown up in a very heteronormative environment in a small Czech town, I didn’t know asexuality was an “option” for me until I was 25 years old. Throughout my teenage years and early 20s I felt somewhat broken for not wanting the one thing all of my peers were obsessed with – sex.
One of the reasons I hadn’t found out sooner about asexuality was because I never saw my experience reflected on screen. Asexual characters are pretty much non-existent on screen and in the rare occasions they are present, they are treated as the comic relief, the shy and nerdy virgin. Or worse, their lack of sexual experience is a problem to be fixed by ‘popping their cherry’ and discovering just how amazing sex is.
It’s time for this to change once and for all!
I want Starved to be as much a conversation starter as a warm hug and an “I see you” for all those with similar experiences.
Written & Directed by: Nikola Jurcakova
Produced by: Coup the Duke
Director of Photography: Lewis Jelley
Starring: Olive Arlauskaite, Kirsty Ferguson, James Morris
