The Crush Space

At its finest, art is a reflection of what it is to be human, and for me, film is the best format for this expression. I love exploring little details that resonate with people. Not everyone can say, ‘My family was exactly like that,’ but many people can visualise a moment such as a brother comforting his sister, an inquisitive mother trying to read her child, or the way everyone laughed at the same in-joke, and think, ‘I know how that feels.’ This is what my short film The Crush Space is all about.

The Crush Space is a twenty-minute comedy, a family movie for people who have outgrown ‘family movies’. The film captures a few hours in the lives of three grown-up siblings as they come to visit their mother for a family reunion. In the four months since they last saw her, each sibling has done something they’re not exactly proud of, and they would rather it stay a secret. But it’s only a matter of time until their mother finds out.

The major themes of the film revolve around its post-coming-of-age setting. Now moved out and living on their own, Laura, Patrick and Grace must figure out how to face their problems alone. However, each sibling is at a different stage of denial about his or her situation. Grace, the youngest, fails to see her decisions as a problem at all. Patrick is still falsely convinced that there is a way out of his problem, and Laura is in denial that her problem can even be fixed.

Some things are discovered only after growing up and experiencing life outside the bubble of your family, and for Laura, Patrick and Grace, it’s the realization that their mother is not so different from them after all. In fact, when it comes to their failures, she’s been there and done that already. With this revelation comes the safety of facing problems with each other’s support.

The car contributes to the themes of the film – driving and car accidents are on the surface, but it goes deeper than that. The vandalism on Laura’s bonnet represents the siblings’ fear of being labeled or judged for their poor decisions, as well as how glaringly obvious their problems really are.

The title of the film is a reference to the part of the car that absorbs the impact of a crash, also known as the ‘crumple zone’. Once together, the family acts as each other’s crush space and are there to cushion the impact of life’s mistakes. The simple truth is, of course: no matter how much you mess up, your mother is still going to love you.