''Hoard'' is a 2023 British

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

written and directed by Luna Carmoon in her feature directorial debut. It stars

Saura Lightfoot-Leon Saura Lightfoot-Leon (born 1 January 1998) is a Dutch-born English-Spanish actress. For her debut feature film ''Hoard'' (2023), she received two British Independent Film Award nominations. She was named a 2024 ''Screen International'' Star of T ...

Hayley Squires Hayley Squires (born 16 April 1988) is an English actress and playwright, best known for her work in the Ken Loach film '' I, Daniel Blake''. Squires has also appeared in ''Call the Midwife'' (2012), '' Southcliffe'' (2013), ''Complicit'' (2013 ...

, Joseph Quinn, Lily-Beau Leach,

Deba Hekmat Deba Hekmat (born 14 November 2001) is an Iranian-British model, actress, and writer. She began her career in modeling before starring in the film '' Last Swim'' (2024). Early life Hekmat was born in Sardasht, western Iran. She is Kurdish. In 2 ...

Samantha Spiro Samantha Spiro (born 20 June 1968) is an English actress and singer. She played Barbara Windsor in the stage play '' Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick'' and the television films '' Cor, Blimey!'' and '' Babs'', D.I. Vivien Friend in '' M.I.T.: ...

, and

Cathy Tyson Catherine Tyson (born 12 June 1965) is an English actress. She won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film ''Mona Lisa'' (1986), which also earned her Best Supporting Actress no ...

. It follows a teenager whose mother used to be an obsessive

hoarder Hoarding is the gathering and storing of goods. Hoarding may also refer to: Animal and human behavior * Hoarding (animal behaviour), an animal behaviour related to storing surplus goods for later use * Hoarding (economics), the practice of ob ...

as she journeys through

childhood trauma Childhood trauma is often described as serious adverse childhood experiences. Children may go through a range of experiences that classify as psychological trauma; these might include neglect, abandonment, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and phys ...

and emerging sexuality. The film had its world premiere at the

80th Venice International Film Festival The 80th annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 30 August to 9 September 2023, at Venice Lido in Italy. Alberto Barbera, Venice's artistic director, acknowledged that the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike was likely to impact the festival ...

on 2 September 2023, where it won three prizes. It was theatrically released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 17 May 2024, by

Vertigo Releasing Vertigo Films is a British independent TV and Film production company founded in 2002 by Allan Niblo and James Richardson and joined a few years later by current CEO and partner, Jane Moore. The company has produced and distributed over 50 fe ...

. It received positive reviews from critics, who praised Carmoon's direction and the performances of the cast. Carmoon was nominated for the European Discovery at the

37th European Film Awards The 37th European Film Awards, presented by the European Film Academy to recognize achievements in European filmmaking, took place at Kultur- und Kongresszentrum Luzern in Lucerne on 7 December 2024. It marked the first time the awards ceremony ...

and for

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer The BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer is a film award presented annually at the British Academy Film Awards in London. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is a British organisation tha ...

at the

78th British Academy Film Awards The 78th British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the British Academy Film Awards, BAFTAs, was a ceremony held on 16 February 2025, honouring films of any nationality that were screened in British cinemas in 2024 in film, 2024. The ...

Plot summary

8-year-old Maria lives with her mother, Cynthia, who is a

. Although Cynthia is loving and affectionate, their house is filthy and rat-infested, and Cynthia becomes upset if Maria doesn't save the day's rubbish and bring it home to her. Cynthia often repeats

aphorisms An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by tra ...

and rhymes, encouraging Maria to do the same, and describes her hoarded items as her and Maria's 'catalogue of love'. At Christmas, one of Cynthia's stacks of hoarded items collapses, severely injuring her. Maria is placed in foster care. Ten years later, in 1994, an 18-year-old Maria still lives with her foster mother, Michelle. Another of Michelle's former charges, the older Michael, comes to stay with them temporarily while he searches for a house with his girlfriend. Cynthia's ashes are delivered to Maria, the courier advising that cremated remains are only delivered within two weeks of death; meaning that Cynthia only recently passed. The same day, Maria's childhood best friend, Laraib, is forced by her family to move away due to rebellious behavior. Maria and Michael become close and form a strange, intense physical relationship, often playfighting and roughhousing. Michael's girlfriend visits one day, and Maria finds out she is pregnant. Her encounters with Michael continue to escalate, and Maria asks Michael to burn her stomach with an iron, something that happened to her as a child. Maria has recurring flashbacks to her life with Cynthia and hallucinates herself and Michael repeating Cynthia's rhymes. Maria begins to hoard garbage and increasingly neglects her physical hygiene. When she wanders outside during the night and comes home with chilblains, Michael tenderly cares for her, and they have sex. The next morning, Michael's girlfriend Leah visits; Maria discovers he proposed to her the day before. That night, Michael and Maria encounter a woman who has been seriously injured in a hit-and-run; she dies as Maria waits for Michael to get help, and Maria places coins over her eyes, walks away and climbs into a large rubbish bin. The next day, a barefoot, filthy Maria returns home. Locked in her room, which is revealed to be filled with hoarded trash, Maria imagines herself and Cynthia happy together in their house. Leah arrives to confront Michael, who has broken up with her via a voicemail. Michael breaks in to Maria's room and begs her to love him, but Maria finally rejects him and Michelle, learning the truth of their relationship, asks him to leave. As Michael and Leah leave together, Maria gifts her with a trinket, advising her to never leave her daughter. Michelle helps Maria throw away her hoard, and Laraib returns home. On New Year's Eve, Maria sneaks into a tip, where she sits atop a pile of rubbish to watch fireworks. In a voiceover, she tells Cynthia she loves her and says the 'catalogue of love' has returned to her.

Cast

Saura Lightfoot Leon Saura Lightfoot-Leon (born 1 January 1998) is a Dutch-born English-Spanish actress. For her debut feature film ''Hoard'' (2023), she received two British Independent Film Award nominations. She was named a 2024 ''Screen International'' Star of To ...

as Maria ** Lily-Beau Leach as young Maria *

as Cynthia, Maria's mother * Joseph Quinn as Michael, one of Michelle's former foster children *

as Laraib, Maria's school friend *

as Michelle, Maria's foster mother *

as Sam *

Nabil Elouahabi Nabil Elouahabi (born 6 February 1975), often credited as Nabil Elouhabi, is a British-Moroccan actor, known for his role as Tariq Larousi in ''EastEnders'' from 2003 to 2005, as Rashid "Gary" Mahmoon in " Strangers on the Shore" (the 2002 Chris ...

as Ali * Sandra Hale as Janice
Alexis Tuttle
as Mrs Norwood

Production

The film is produced by Delaval Film, Erebus Pictures, Anti-Worlds with producers Loran Dunn, Helen Simmons and Andy Starke. It is backed by the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

(BFI) and

BBC Film BBC Film (formerly BBC Films) is the feature film-making arm of the BBC. It was founded on 18 June 1990, and has produced or co-produced some of the most successful British films of recent years, including ''Truly, Madly, Deeply (film), Truly, ...

. Casting was revealed in April 2022 with Saura Lightfoot Leon, Deba Hekmat,

, Joseph Quinn and Lily-Beau Leach in the lead roles. Principal photography took place in

South-East London Greater London is divided into five sub-regions for the purposes of the London Plan. The boundaries of these areas were amended in 2008 and 2011 and their role in the implementation of the London Plan has varied with each iteration. Purpose Sub- ...

and was completed by May 2022.

Release

''Hoard'' had its world premiere at the

on 2 September 2023. The film was firstly shown at the BFI

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. Founded in 1957, the festival runs for two weeks every October. In 2016, the British Film Institute, BFI estim ...

Works-in-Progress showcase in October 2022. It had a UK premiere date of 9 October 2023, again at the BFI London Film Festival. The film was theatrically released in the UK and Ireland on 17 May 2024. In April 2024, Sunrise Films acquired distribution rights for the United States and Canada, where it is scheduled to be released on 6 September 2024.

Reception

Peter Bradshaw Peter Nicholas Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire'' magazine. Early life and education Bradshaw was educat ...

in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' gave the film four stars out of five, describing a "deeply strange and emotionally extravagant story" with "a lot of storytelling substance. ''Hoard'' isn’t perfect but its pure vehemence and the commitment of its performances are arresting". Ed Potton in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' compared the filmmaking to

Andrea Arnold Andrea Patricia Arnold OBE (born 5 April 1961) is an English filmmaker and former actress. She won an Academy Award for her short film ''Wasp'' in 2005. Her feature films include '' Red Road'' (2006), '' Fish Tank'' (2009) and '' American Hon ...

and

Andrew Birkin Andrew Timothy Birkin (born 9 December 1945) is an English screenwriter and director. Early life and education Birkin is the only son of Lieutenant-Commander David Leslie Birkin (grandson of the lace manufacturer and railway director Sir Thoma ...

but said that "Carmoon is very much her own film-maker" and praised Lightfoot Leon's performance, saying she was "a leading lady with animalistic, inhibited presence". The film also received four stars out of five from Sophie Monks Kauffman in '' Time Out'' who called it a "visceral debut" which "defies simple interpretations" and made mention of cinematographer Nanu Segal’s handheld camerawork which "captures the fearless Lightfoot Leon".

Accolades

Carmoon was nominated for Best Directing Debut and Squires, Lightloot Leon and Quinn all received acting nominations at the

British Independent Film Awards The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) is an organisation that celebrates, supports, and promotes British independent cinema and film-making talent in the United Kingdom. Nominations for the annual awards ceremony are announced in early Nov ...

in November 2024.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hoard 2023 films 2020s British films 2020s English-language films Films shot in London Films set in the 1980s Films set in the 1990s Films about mother–daughter relationships BBC Film films British Film Institute films British drama films