The Wasp (or the Sheer Beauty of Accepting Yourself), screening at BFI London Film Festival, is a stunning, heartfelt, and powerful short film about what it means to be human in a world that far too often carries a sting in its tail.
Why do we hate wasps? Yes, they sting, and of course, they upset summer picnics by hounding us, but do they really deserve so much hate? After all, most of us love bees, yet the wasp is equally crucial ecologically. The truth is, we are irrational as human beings in what we like and what we dislike, from insects to foods, drinks, and, yes, even other people. There is often no rhyme or reason for why we discriminate or why we choose to hate, other than us feeling threatened, even if no threat exists.
Twentysomething, Frank Jasper, played by the wonderful Laurie Kynaston, has been feeling out of sorts lately and is convinced something is seriously wrong with him. But as Frank steps into the hospital consulting room, nothing could have prepared him for the diagnosis he is about to receive. Frank thinks he has cancer, but his doctor quickly jettisons that idea as he announces that Frank is 62% wasp. Dazed and confused, Frank questions the doctor’s diagnosis. After all, he is human, right? Not a wasp in a human’s body! But the diagnosis stands, and as Frank leaves the surgery with a prescription in hand to help him through the days ahead, he is hit by another revelation. People hate wasps!
Why couldn’t Frank have been 62% otter, hell even 62% shark would have been preferable. As he stumbles around the hospital attempting to navigate the reality of his new condition, Frank encounters the hatred wasps face, and wonders whether he will ever be accepted or loved again. Even his prescription is a joke – a lollipop to feed his need for sugar! The question Frank faces is a challenging one: How do we learn to accept ourselves when the world rejects and ostracises us?
Held aloft by Laurie Kynaston’s electric performance and a stunning visual and auditory journey that sees Frank battle with his inner wasp as he attempts to find himself, Cass Virdee’s short film may, on first glance, appear to sit within the classic sci-fi fantasy genre. However, our journey alongside Frank is far more profound as Virdee explores what it means to feel ostracised and alone in a world that fears you, or rejects you due to difference.
Virdee’s short film speaks directly to the emotions, anger, and confusion that anyone who has felt isolated, judged, or alone has faced, whether through a mental health condition, a physical difference that others reject, or a part of themselves they cannot change but society shuns. Frank’s short journey is one many people have, or will, face at some point in their lives, as they feel there’s nowhere left to go and no hope for the future due to a difference they can’t control.
The Wasp (or the Sheer Beauty of Accepting Yourself) is about irrational fears that see people isolate others, pushing them further and further to the edges of society. It’s about the feelings of rejection and self-hate that far too many people suffer daily due to those irrational fears and isolating behaviours, as they question whether they are simply a pest in the eyes of a society that appears not to care. The Wasp (or the Sheer Beauty of Accepting Yourself) is a stunning, heartfelt and powerful exploration of what it means to be human, in a world that far too often carries a sting in its tail.
The Wasp (or the Sheer Beauty of Accepting Yourself) is screening at the BFI London Film Festival in the Are You Kidding? Short Film Collection.
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