Sister Wives is screening at OFN LGBTQIA+ Film Festival on Saturday, 16th November. BOOK TICKETS. Sister Wives is also screening at Birmingham Film Festival (6-17 November), North East Film Festival (18-24 November), Bradford Queer Film Festival (21-24 November), and HollyShorts London (6-8 December).
Sometimes, the opportunity for liberation and escape comes from unexpected places or people. Sister Wives, written and directed by Louisa Connolly-Burnham, is about one door opening as another closes in a strict, isolated, oppressive religious community in rural America. It is the story of two women, one older and one younger, brought together by strict religious beliefs that keep them locked away from the outside world in the service of a husband neither really loves. And it is the story of the freedom they find in each other’s arms despite the oppression surrounding them. Sister Wives is, quite simply, twenty-nine minutes of beautiful, stunning, award-winning short filmmaking that feels like a mere prologue to something bigger.
Kaidence (Louisa Connolly-Burnham) and Jeremiah (Michael Fox) live in a small log cabin on a lake in a simple homestead of pioneers and prairie schooners. However, despite appearances, this isn’t 1830 but 2003. A world away from their locked-down bubble, Nokia phones, take-out coffees, and iPods are all the rage, yet that world cannot be allowed to invade the sanctity of a religious community built on silence and control. Kaidence and Jeremiah have been part of this strict religious community ever since childhood. Some people they know fled in their teens, but they chose to stay, and by the age of fourteen, they were married. Jeremiah knows something about the modern world outside their cabin, for like all men in this closed community, he holds all the power, including the ability to leave the estate for church business. But Kaidence knows little of the opportunities outside the church and fears the eyes that watch her every move, scrutinising her daily chores and commitment to her husband.
When Jeremiah announces he is taking a second wife, Kaidence feels hurt, betrayed and disappointed in her husband, whose only wish is to have a child she has not been able to provide. When her new “sister wife”, nineteen-year-old Galilee (Mia McKenna-Bruce), moves in and takes her place next to Jeremiah in a bed that has never seen love, Kaidence feels rejected. However, as Jeremiah is called away to work on behalf of the church, a bond forms between the women that will open the door to something new: love, freedom and liberation. But as a new door opens, can Kaidence remove the shackles that keep her tied to a community built on oppression and control?
Every minute of Louisa Connolly Burnham’s short film is exquisitely crafted, from its screenplay to its performances, direction and cinematography. As the closed curtains Kaidence has lived behind since childhood begin to open due to Galilee’s differing beliefs, her touch and youthful energy, light floods in. As this light penetrates further into the cabin prison, Louisa Connolly Burnham beautifully explores the internal and external tensions between faith and security and love and freedom. Sister Wives is an atmospheric, bold, and beautiful short film that, as it closes, leaves you feeling that this is one story that has only just begun.
Sister Wives is also available to stream now on Channel 4.
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