Writers: Samuel Abrahams and Miranda Campbell Bowling
Director: Samuel Abrahams
There is a type of eccentric satire that can only be made in Britain, often bizarre and inexplicable, unexplainably odd yet tinged with real sadness. Samuel Abrahams and Miranda Campbell Bowling’s film Lady, receiving its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival 2025, is definitely on the of the strangest films this year, experimental in its approach and characterisation, it muses on the desire for fame that boils down to feeling recognised and seen while proving compassionate about the small tragedies behind wildly comic behaviours. One aspect of Abrahams and Campbell Bowling’s film spoils the illusion by going just that little bit too far but the documentary style and vibrant central performances cut through the madness.
Aristocrat Lady Isabella invites a documentary crew to film her new reality style show promising them Netflix interest. But when Director Sam and his team arrive, they are confronted with Izzy’s extreme behaviour and no idea what to do next. Inspired to enter the children’s talent show the estate hosts every year with a performance art piece, filming flounders when bits of her start to disappear and the boundary between subject and filmmaker gets a little blurry.
There is so much to enjoy in Abraham and Campbell Bowling’s humorous approach, and tonally Lady maintains its mock seriousness consistently throughout. And what the audience sees is a mixture of the film that Sam and Izzy are making as well as a making-of the film, recording everything as the material intended to be on and off screen is blurred. Some of that is about control with neither Izzy as the instigator and star nor Sam as the Director end up in charge of what is shot, the unseen camera operators making their own decisions, intruding as much into Sam’s personal life, fears and flaws as it does Izzys, and the Lady is quite smart about the consequences of letting cameras in and the inability to conceal anything when maintaining the screen persona demands more of you.
The creation and interweaving of Izzy’s performance art pieces in preparation for the talent show are nicely done while the undercurrent of loneliness as well as the developing connection with Sam builds well across the film, giving both characters much more substance than they see in one another initially. Sian Clifford is excellent as Izzy, playing it straight while finding every opportunity to amplify the comedy and dial up the subtle tragedy. Rising star Laurie Kynaston is equally excellent as filmmaker Sam, exasperated and exhilarated by his subject while fighting his own demons.
But an invisibility storyline proves a silliness too many and where everything else in the film has been wacky but entirely credible, this element seems unnecessarily fanciful and, ultimately, entirely unnecessary when the leads cover all the thematic ground through the performances. Lady would have been exactly the same without it and it’s a shame so much of the running time is devoted to this instead of the dynamics between the on and off camera creations.
British society revels in the unconventionality of aristocratic life and the lack of self-awareness that comes from wealth with Lady certainly delivering a character who in both fashion and behaviour is never confined by traditional expectations.
Lady is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2025 from 8-19 October.
