On The Line

Two working class best friends skip school to enjoy a day of luxury at a rich classmate's villa and end up facing life-changing choices between loyalty and ambition.

“Well performed, with well-rounded characters and a very authentic friendship anchoring the story” @festivalformula

Winner of the Best Edited Short at the London Women Film Festival.

  • Emilia Teglia
    Director
    #Hater
  • Emilia Teglia
    Writer
    #Haters
  • Andreea Tudose
    Producer
  • Emilia Teglia
    Producer
    #Haters
  • Moses Alexander
    Key Cast
    "Kai"
    Sister Boniface mysteries; Casualty; Rave; All the same; Sliced; Rite of Passage; Jamal
  • Annie Taylor
    Key Cast
    "Tia"
  • Kai-Yan Lai
    Director of Photography
    Beautiful Meadow; Skeleton; Wish you were gone; Re Teu: behind the music; Repeter
  • Emilia Teglia
    Editor
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    30 minutes 15 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 3, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    30 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Emilia Teglia

Emilia comes from a theatre background and is moving into film. The stories she writes and directs for stage and screen. explore the extraordinary encounters between individuals whose lives run parallel, brushing past each other daily, unearthing the undercover thread that unites us all and the possibility of change that is unleashed when our path crosses. Since 2010, she is Artistic Director at Odd Eyes Theatre, the company she founded after her experience of homelessness. The Big Issue featured an article of her personal journey and named her in the most influential people for her work through the arts. Emilia's work has a large following, especially in London, where her first short, #Haters, has been seen across non-traditional cinema venues by over 10,000 people since 2019. Her stage productions featured at Camden People's Theatre, the Pleasance Theatre, New Diorama Theatre and regularly sold out.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

On The Line was born from the real experiences of a group of young people from Camden, London, in particular two young women, Cheyanne Thompson and Emily Johnstone, and their friends from Action Youth Boxing Intervention. After watching my first short, #Haters (also based on real events), they devised scenes and shared experiences of growing up bright but poor, with the painful awareness of starting life on the backfoot. The dialogue is taken verbatim from their slang, bursts with their humour, their insecurities, their cultural and musical references. It brings you intimately into their world, uncovering the real individuals behind the statistics, with their complexities and deep believe in the vital role of friendship, their conflicted relationship with their families and the pull between loyalty and aspiration.
Adapting the play for screen was a very long process. I knew a film longer than 15 minutes would prove hard to sell on the festival circuit. For nearly one year I drafted and redrafted, yet the re-shapes would inevitably compromise the original ending, which was essential to honour the young storytellers. In the end, I had to settle for truth over product marketability. Their fun yet challenging tale needed to be told as it was—full of naivety, tenderness, and resilience—to deliver a message of hope to us all.