Private Project

Knitting Out (Short version)

Tullah (Tallulah) a socially awkward but talented weaver, descends into obsession and depravity after losing her virginity to a detached man. While believing she has the virginity curse like her family, Tullah tries to tie up love through her tapestries using the blood and skin of all her previous relationships to improve the next one.

Tullah grew up as a lonely child, with almost no friends apart from a creepy doll and a strange mother, ABIGAIL, who isolated her from society. After Abigail's death, Tullah starts going out with a guy she just met, JOHN, a long-haired heavy metal with who she almost instantaneously falls in love. When losing her virginity to John, Tullah's obsession increases leading to the drastic end of the relationship, which then leads to another failed relationship, this time with a woman, who uncovers Tullah's darkest family secrets. The consumption of drugs, along with the fear of abandonment, and the belief of being cursed awakes in Tullah paranormal forces that shape her life forever, and threaten everybody around her.

  • Catarina De Cèzanne
    Writer
  • Ana Maria Santos
    Designer (Poster)
  • Project Type:
    Short Script
  • Genres:
    folk horror, witchcraft, psychological, thriller
  • Number of Pages:
    30
  • Country of Origin:
    Portugal
  • Language:
    English
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Tagore International Film Festival
    Birbhum, West Bengal
    April 26, 2021
    Winner Best Short Script
  • Art Film Awards
    Никола Русински, Скопје, Macedonia
    April 29, 2021
    Winner Best Short Script
  • Prisma Rome Independent Film Awards
    Roma, Italy
    May 6, 2021
    Finalist: Best Short Screenplay
  • Golden Sparrow International Film Festival
    Tamil Nadu, India
    May 17, 2021
    Winner Best Short Script
  • Prague International Monthly Film Festival
    Prague, Czech Republic
    May 19, 2021
    Finalist: Best Short Screenplay
  • Madras Independent Film Festival
    Chennai, India
    June 9, 2021
    Winner Best Woman Writer
  • Independent Horror Movie Awards
    Online Event
    May 7, 2021
    Nominee
  • LA International Horror Film Festival
    Los Angeles, CA. USA
    June 27, 2021
  • A Night Of Horror International Film Festival
    Sidney, Australia
    August 30, 2021
    Winner - Best Short Screenplay
  • AFIN International Film Festival
    Brisbane, Australia
    September 30, 2021
    Nominee
  • LA Under the Stars
    Los Angeles, USA
    February 10, 2022
    Winner Best Horror Script
  • Shockfest Film Festival
    Las Vegas, United States
    December 10, 2022
    Official Selection
Writer Biography - Catarina De Cèzanne

Catarina César (or C.S. César) is a filmmaker born in a small village in the south of Portugal. She is known for her work as a PA, and Script supervisor in the TV series "Serramoura". She has a Master's in Film/TV Production and is constantly travelling around the world.

She aims to inspire others with her words, especially those who come from geographically disadvantaged countries and small villages, or whose English is not their first language. She plans to raise awareness against modern slavery, nepotism and discrimination towards immigrants.

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Writer Statement

Tullah is a horror/drama gothic tale about a lonely girl with strong beliefs who grows up isolated from society, in a very small town.

This short script is a shorter version of a 90 pages feature that I wrote as well. It is a female-centred horror drama with supernatural elements, and it shows how far one can go for her/his beliefs and superstition.

I hope this script can transport you to Tullah’s world, a nightmarish world. This is the short version of a feature. Her fractured state of mind uncovers many demons that personify real horrors that lurk inside us all. The virginity curse was, for some and for many years, a real belief, and it is not hard to imagine how trauma and superstition can affect the human mind, even nowadays.

You will find that the female main character Tullah suffers from an unusual obsession. It starts with an innocent obsession over a man, and moreover by an idea, - a belief that she is cursed after she lost her virginity with this man that then rejects her. And this idea is the true monster. This idea is the horror.

You will find that the female main character Tullah suffers from an unusual obsession. It starts with an innocent obsession over a man, and moreover by an idea, - a belief that she is cursed after she lost her virginity with this man that then rejects her. And this idea is the true monster. This idea is the horror.

Because I believe that ideas can be metaphysical materialized in a sort of alternative plan of reality, and it is as powerful as a physical weapon. Although this is the idea I would like to transmit, it is also related to me personally because, just like Tullah, I live in a very small village in the south of Portugal, where peoples' mentalities and superstition also got stuck in time.

This script was written to translate a feeling that has no name. The feeling that I’ve been holding almost my whole life, the feeling of being stuck, isolated, suffocating in a small village in the middle of nowhere, where everybody knows everyone and nothing ever happens, in Portugal, one of the poorest countries of Europe, without opportunities to thrive. We grow up to die here, love and reborn, and we live by our beliefs. Reaching fame through Art is rarely achievable. We remain invisible and never discovered, and it is a scary feeling.