Experiencing Interruptions?

Sheila Pye, TIFF WRITER'S STUDIO- 2025

A Canadian screenwriter retreats to a secluded Mallorcan monastery in search of creative inspiration. There, she uncovers Agatha Christie’s forgotten journey during the famous author’s 1926 disappearance. As both women seek solace and inspiration in Mallorca’s haunting legends — their stories intertwine across time, revealing that betrayal and creativity can be deadly in this arthouse murder mystery under the meditarrean sun.

  • Sheila Pye
    Writer
    the young arsonists, the red virgin
  • SHEILA PYE
    Director
    THE YOUNG ARSONISTS
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    DRAMA
  • Runtime:
    2 minutes 22 seconds
  • Language:
    English
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • vallodolid film festival
    valladolid, soain
    January 27, 2025
    Best film
Director Biography - SHEILA PYE

Internationally acclaimed Canadian artist with 20 years of
filmmaking experience. Writer, director and producer of twelve short
films that have screened at prestigious festivals, including the Locarno
International Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival. Her
visual art pieces are part of permanent collections at the Art Gallery of
Ontario, the Smithsonian Institute, MOCCA Museum of Contemporary
Art, and private collections worldwide.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

More than ever, the world needs to see more stories about women, told by women. Women who are complicated, intelligent driven and enchanted. Women in all their extremes.

The short story ¨The Problem in Pollenca Bay” by Agatha Christie fascinated me when I came to live in Pollenca. I came to Mallorca to look for inspiration and I never left. The more I sifted through this story it became clear to me that her real life was more electrifying than a Greek tragedy and fueled my imagination and the characters I could create. I decided to create a story where I could weave my own experiences and imagination in a narrative fiction that connects past and present

Drawn to strong, feminine, eccentric characters...I realized that it is a story with many universal themes like love, sex, and creativity. In my personal art practices, these have always topics that I am attracted to and although I have done an immense amount of research, I am not interested in making a bio-pic about her life and disappearance. Nor am I am not interested in the focusing on the political landscape of Spain at that time but rather portraying the personal landscapes within the characters and the themes mentioned above while showcasing this magical island. These themes need to be reimagined through a bold female eye awakening her story in the truest form to the integrity of these characters in a joyful way.

The story will be told in a very visual way. My artistic practice influences my cinema and vice versa. The aesthetics to which I gravitate can be seen in my other films and my visual art. With this project I want to create a very special world full of magic in living colors. I am very subtly going
to inject a dry sense of humor in this Christie-style murder mystery.
.