Private Project

Fat Girl

A lonely teenage girl's obsession with her favourite Tik Tok star takes a dark turn as she descends into DIY cosmetics in an attempt to look like her.

  • Makez Rikweda
    Director
    Young Afghans, Only Voice Remains, Sound of the Birds
  • Makez Rikweda
    Writer
    Young Afghans, Only Voice Remains, Sound of the Birds
  • Don Omope
    Producer
    Wedding Party, Wedding Party 2, Lunch Time Heroes, Chasing Hanifa, Taxi Driver Oko Ashewo
  • Clarissa Itschert
    Producer
    Shelf Life, Natu, Hummus & Chips, Bye Grandma!
  • Emma Keeling
    Producer
    Sound of the Birds
  • Sol Rikweda
    Producer
    Blood, Sweat & Chokes, Only Voice Remains, Sound of the Birds
  • India Lilly Davies
    Key Cast
    "Carly"
  • Stella Stevens
    Key Cast
    "Lexi"
  • Sun Sharma
    Key Cast
    "Addison"
  • Carla Colado
    Key Cast
    "Olivia "
  • Project Type:
    Short, Other
  • Genres:
    Drama, Thriller, Psychological, Coming of age
  • Runtime:
    14 minutes 36 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 1, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    20,000 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Arri Alexa Mini
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Manchester Film Festival
    Manchester
    United Kingdom
    March 16, 2023
    UK premiere
  • Fastnet Film Festival
    Schull
    Ireland
    May 25, 2023
    Ireland premiere
  • Deep In The Heart Film Festival
    Texas
    United States
    July 20, 2023
    US Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Cinema in Sneakers
    Warsaw
    Poland
    Polish premiere
    Official selection
  • Blackbird Film Festival

    Honorable Mention
  • Julien Dubique Festival

    Honorable Mention
  • Peekskill Film Festival
    Westchester, NY
    United States
    July 28, 2023
    Winner of Best Short Film
  • Southport International Film Festival
    Nottingham
    United Kingdom
    July 21, 2023
    Official Selection
  • Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival
    Middlebury, Vermont
    United States
    August 23, 2023
    Official Selection
  • Hollyshorts
    Los Angeles
    United States
    August 10, 2023
    Los Angeles/West Coast
    Official Selection
  • Not Film Festival
    Santarcangelo di Romagna
    Italy
    August 22, 2023
    Italy Premiere
    Official Selection
  • YoFiFest
    Yonkers
    United States
    November 11, 2023
    Official Selection
Distribution Information
  • Eroin Films
    Sales Agent
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Makez Rikweda

Makez is a British-Afghan writer and filmmaker based in London.

Her films include her first narrative fiction Fat Girl (2023), her visual art piece Sound of the Birds (2022) and her short documentaries Only Voice Remains (2019), and Young Afghans (2010).

She has also produced 'Blood, Sweat & Chokes,' which won the Best UK Series at Raindance Film Festival (2016) and was selected for the Guardian pitch at Sheffdoc, as well as the upcoming queer comedy short, 'Late to the Party' (2022).

Alongside her filmmaking career, Makez has spent the past decade producing shows and content for clients and channels including Al Jazeera English, France 24, China Global Television, Associated Press, Adobe, Teen Vogue, ITN Productions, and the BBC.
Website: www.makezrikweda.com

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Fat Girl is a film which explores the self-hatred and internal decimation that occurs when women fail to live up to societal ideals of how they should look. In the 90s and 2000s, the media conditioned us to aspire to be as skinny and white as Kate Moss. With the advent of social media came more body types and a challenge to the traditional concepts of beauty, but while body positivity and diversity movements are doing a great job of widening this concept, the majority of the top influencers are still white and slim. Many are now also promoting cosmetic enhancements which are both normalised as aspirational and more widely available. And for those who cannot afford it, there are plenty of cheap do-it-yourself versions or illegal technicians to be found online.
Nowhere did this new standard hit me harder than when I was sitting at a family dinner with my Kylie Jenner loving cousin, whose cosmetically enhanced lips proceeded to bleed all over the table. She, like most of her Gen-Z friends, could not afford real plastic surgeons but found a way to achieve the new beauty standard, even if it meant risking her health. Lexi, our central character, makes a similar bold choice.
At the heart of Fat Girl is obsession with image and battles with an eating disorder which no woman (or indeed, man) is impervious to in today’s society. Whether overtly or covertly, we are constantly bombarded with images and videos of how we should look and what our lives should be like, and this has a way of penetrating our subconscious and views of self.
This is something I found myself personally affected by through a battle with Binge Eating Disorder, which is both the most common eating disorder and the least well-known, partly because many women function and hide the condition so easily. While attempting to self- administer cognitive behaviour therapy, I realised that image and the desire for perfection was the driving force of the disorder. It was the daily failure to achieve a goal image - whether by eating something 'bad' or not looking as slim and toned as the girls on Tik Tok and Instagram - that would trigger a binge and begin the endless hamster wheel of frustration. It was during a post-binge battle with the internal self-loathing voices that the idea for Fat Girl came to me.