Writer-director Sacha Polak discovered a star with actress Vicky Knight, who was working as a nurse at the time, taking a huge gamble casting her in the lead role of Dirty God. It paid off handsomely as Knight’s performance was one of the best of 2019 earning her a nomination as Best Actress in that years BIFA’s. That film had been drawn on Knight’s own childhood experience of suffering major burns in a house fire and once again own personal experiences are revisited in Polak’s new film, ‘Silver Haze’.
Franky (Vicky Knight) is a twenty something nurse going about her duties on the ward and in turn dealing with a new patient Florence (Esme Creed-Miles) herself a twenty something suicide survivor. Both of them have their troubles – Franky is consumed with the wholly unfounded idea that her estranged fathers new girlfriend was responsible for the house fire that caused her burn injuries and at the same time her current fractured home life sees her having to contest with her unstable mother – whereas Florence struggles with a suicidal eating disorder and lives with her terminally ill grandmother and autistic brother. Yet despite and maybe because of this the pair see a kindred spirit in each other and a relationship soon develops but soon becomes strained.
Both actresses are good but Knight excels and the supporting cast are just as convincing , unsurprisingly as many are played by her own sister, brother and cousin and the script has been improvised in part with some excoriating abuse aimed at Franky which on occasion has you wincing. There’s a defiant authenticity about the film and the performances therein and it is only a plotline that sees Franky’s stepsister convert to Islam as a plot line too many. But Silver Haze continues to affirm that Vicky Knight is a remarkable talent.
Related feature Dirty God reviewed
Related feature : Red White and Royal Blue’ World premiere at London’s IMAX as introduced by director Matthew Lopez
We chatted with Vicky Knight and director Sacha Polak about the making of the film….
Here’s the Silver Haze trailer……
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