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Detachable

A young deaf woman wakes up hungover in the back of her car. She can't find the processor for her cochlear implant and is unable to hear anything without it, so she attempts to retrace her steps from the night before. Meanwhile, two children find an unfamiliar magnetic object in the grass, but don't know what to do with it.

  • Joshua Carver
    Director
    Mary No More, Blood & Stones
  • Joshua Carver
    Writer
    Mary No More, Blood & Stones
  • Imogen Lea
    Writer
  • Imogen Lea
    Producer
  • Daniel Dunt
    Producer
    Call the Midwife, Cunk on Earth, Death to 2021, Grantchester, Suspect, the Marlow Murder Club
  • Libby Welsh
    Key Cast
  • Maggie Croston-Clegg
    Key Cast
  • Fraser Croston-Clegg
    Key Cast
  • Kofi Dennis
    Key Cast
  • Rowena Croston-Clegg
    Key Cast
  • Anja Kick
    Key Cast
  • Joanna Lumley
    Executive Producer
    Absolutely Fabulous, Motherland, Paddington 2, Wolf of Wall Street
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Arthouse, Coming of Age
  • Runtime:
    28 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    April 5, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    7,000 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    4:3
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Joshua Carver

(He/him) Born and bred in Norfolk, I have been filmmaker and photographer since my late teens, as well as having worked as a Media Technician, a Director for a media company and a mentor on the BFI Film Academy. My primary experience is as writer/director, with my MA short film showing at festivals such as Aesthetica and winning the student award at Norwich Film Festival. My next independent short also had festival success including the main prize at Cardiff Mini Film Festival.

Along the way I’ve gained a lot of experience in different areas of filmmaking, especially working on short films as a cinematographer and editor, many of which brought further festival success. As a filmmaker I have strong and specific visions for my projects, a procedural approach with a stripped-back aesthetic laced with dark humour. I lost my hearing 20 years ago and have had a cochlear implant for last decade, which is something that I explore in this short as well as in a feature that I am writing about the same character.

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Director Statement

We've been overwhelmed by the incredibly enthusiastic reception we've received so far for our previews of Detachable, and it's wonderful to have already got it into the hands of some major industry figures to begin creating some buzz around the project:

"Absolutely wonderful… Such an extraordinarily expressive, beautiful performance. The power of it all is stunning."
- Sir Stephen Fry, Actor, Writer and Broadcaster (The Hobbit, V for Vendetta)

"This film is magnificent"
- Mark Cousins, Filmmaker and Writer (The Story of Film: An Odyssey, What is this Film Called Love?)

"Incredible. It's got shades of Andrea Arnold and Lynne Ramsay. [Libby Welsh] is really brilliant. The cinematography is gorgeous, the sound design is incredible."
- Ryan Eddleston, BAFTA Cymru Award-Winning Cinematographer (Timestalker, Prevenge)

Inspired by a friend finding a cochlear implant processor in the street, I was immediately excited by this electronic parallel to the famous ear scene in Blue Velvet, and the resonances that this image holds of a fascinating story behind it. Wanting to preserve this fascination, Detachable is the story of a ‘morning after’ with the viewer active in putting the clues together themselves.

I’ve found that people tend to know very little about cochlear implants, so getting up close and personal with the external 'processor' felt revolutionary in itself. But more importantly, my own experience being deaf and using a cochlear implant meant I was able to draw from a well of ideas that I’ve collated over the years that makes me uniquely placed to tell this story in a way that bucks the trend of how disabled characters tend to be represented on screen.

I wanted to make something with a sense of humour about itself, that doesn’t define the character by her disability but rather shows something very relatable - a young woman trying to fix a problem on her own instead of being open and honest with others because she doesn't want to come across as vulnerable, dependent, or different.