This year there will be four shorts strands curated by Festival programmer Sarah McIntosh: BELOVED, CONNECTION, LIFE LESSONS and a diptych of TWINS strands. Here’s a sneak peek at a short from the first TWINS strand: CHARLIE SAYS. A short by Lewis Arnold, CHARLIE SAYS tells the brooding story of a young boy called Charlie (Conner Chapman) and the consequences of a (relatively) innocent lie he tells while on holiday with his family. What follows is a brief but touchingly intimate exploration of the unspoken bond between father and son.

The ramifications of a lie have been explored in film and literature on many occasions, often given a grand setting (ATONEMENT), providing a backdrop that allows the scale of the lie to be manifestly magnified against the tragedy of the real world. It is this sense of grand foreboding that gives CHARLIE SAYS much of its strength, as it does not have a grand backdrop and the consequences are not as you think. The nature of truth and misplaced love lie at the heart of these narratives and CHARLIE SAYS captures that wonderfully.

The opening scene demonstrates with simple beauty the love between father and son, capturing in 30 seconds the lifelong childhood memories most of us have from our holidays. From here it unfolds in to three generations. Charlie, a typically laconic boy of 10 or so, sees the world in a vertical way: not yet fully grown but observing, while only half understanding the conversations of the generations surrounding him. The teenagers, entering adulthood and talking the teenage talk with all the usual gusto but little real understanding, hoping for a drink and some sex. And the adults, wrapped up in their world, separate from that of their children and seeking some downtime while on holiday.

To be noticed again, he tells a lie.

At heart, Charlie is still just a child with childish ambitions: to build a tyre swing, to play in the woods. He just wants to play and have fun with his dad, or his sister and her friends. He is not seeking any abnormal attention, just the usual things kids his age want to do on holiday – and he can’t understand the preoccupation of the other generations. Why should he? He is just a child, and we should celebrate that. To be noticed again, he tells a lie.

The mother (Christine Bottomley), played with beautiful understatement, has only a few spoken lines; but she is the voice of reason and exudes a great deal of love, with a look or a half spoken line in the background. The father (Gary Cargill, MALEFICENT), no less full of love and deftly played, does not know how to express his loving feelings. The teenager Luke (Elliott Tittensor, THE SELFISH GIANT), is played to great effect and provides a (naive) testosterone driven edge and pace to the piece. However, it is Conner Chapman’s performance as Charlie that is at the heart of the film: his angst riven face, lips sore and reddened from sucking, his furtive glances up at his parents, avoiding meaningful eye contact and his “dunno” responses give a real pathos to the drama.

There is constant eavesdropping of whispered conversations, giving this piece a sense of the wider implications of a lie, the grander sense of scale. Of the need for the rule of law (the other parents’ concern for the boy’s father, especially in a moment of lost perspective), of fascism (the unfounded accusations against the ‘hairy man’), of tribalism (family group mentality), of vigilantes and “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing”. But ultimately what makes this short work is that it is not, thankfully, about those things. It is about love.

CHARLIE SAYS shows real promise from director Lewis Arnold, having recently directed episodes of MISFITS for channel 4 and the up-coming BANANA. Suspense is maintained throughout, the editing is crisp and the script tight. The sound is also wonderfully intimate: the closeness of water, of a fire burning or the background of synths murmuring, telling their own story – it all enhances the mood to great effect.

Oh, and another thing. Is that a nod to the SEARCHERS at the beginning – the boy sitting in an open framed doorway looking out across the park ..?

CHARLIE SAYS screens on Saturday 6th September at 22.30, as part of the TWINS PART 1 Short Fusion strand.

httpvh://vimeo.com/60656485