Directed by
Helena Coan

A young woman struggling with pressures from an abusive boyfriend finds herself in an unusual situation. An opportunity to escape her life, as she knows it, arises.

Keepsake is London based filmmaker Helena Coan' s debut short narrative - known more for her feature documentary work, such as Chasing Perfect. Keepsake stars Olivier Award Winning actress Patsy Ferran (Tennessee Williams’ Summer + Smoke, God’s Own Country, Sky’s Jamestown) and Alan Williams (Peterloo, HBO’s Chernobyl) in a powerful, tense and moving portrait of a young woman, after she discovers a vulnerable man alone on the street on one night in London. As she struggles with pressure exerted by her abusive boyfriend the young woman must confront an unlikely opportunity given to her to escape her current reality, and move on in her life. But will she take it?

Coan << Keepsake is based on a personal experience I had when I first moved to London when I was 18. I was on a bus coming home about 1am and an elderly man in a hospital gown asked me to help him get home. So I pushed him home in his wheelchair and before I knew it I was inside his flat, which was possibly the most harrowing place I’ve ever been. He was 85 years old, living in complete squalor and no one was helping him. I helped him get into bed and I came back the next morning to check on him and he was gone. I saw him once again and then never saw him again. He was someone who was totally vulnerable and helpless, but he had also clearly lived his life in a way that had led him down a bad path and to that point. So I made this film to try and give a greater understanding and appreciation for characters and humans that are not absolute. An understanding that people are neither wholly good nor bad, neither wholly victim nor perpetrator - everyone and everything is flawed and nuanced and always changing.>>