Lynn + Lucy

Lynn + Lucy
UK, France | 2019 | 84’ | DCP | Colour | English | Group: B
Director: Fyzal Boulifa

Lynn and Lucy are life-long pals, but the toxic combination of envy and desperation has no respect for a friendship that started way back at junior school. When opportunism enters the fray, all bets are off. For his feature debut, award-winning British shorts director Fyzal Boulifa has set his sharp, provocative story on a small housing estate full of tiny minds where Lynn and Lucy live opposite the road from each other but every road only leads you back to where you began and the disappointment that you are and always have been to yourself. Shot in a boxy format which constantly reminds the viewer that there’s no escape from here, Lynn & Lucy is deceptively simple but shockingly universal. Stories like this – and it always seems to be rooted in reality – can often feel like they come from another world. But by the time Boulifa has finished his film, drawing strong performances from his two female leads, you’ll be right in the middle of it.

– Fionnuala Halligan

Lynn and Lucy are life-long best friends, their relationship as intense as any romance. Neither has ventured far from where they grew up. Lynn, who married her first boyfriend and whose daughter is fast growing up, is delighted when the charismatic, volatile Lucy has her first baby boy. Lucy however does not react to being a mother as Lynn expects. Soon, they find their friendship is tested by tragedy, spinning out into violence and hysteria that engulf the whole community.

Fyzal Boulifa is a  British writer-director based between London, Paris and Tangier. His short films The Curse (2012) and Rate Me (2015) both won the Illy Prize for Best Short Film at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. The Curse was nominated for a BAFTA and both films were screened at Sundance Film Festival among many others. Lynn + Lucy (2009) is his debut feature.