Review: The Bridge

Ciara Cohen-Ennis was impressed by a new student written film.


Cassiah Joski-Jethi never ceases to amaze with her skills as an actress, dancer, writer and director. Her short film, The Bridge, premiered at the end of last term.

Joski-Jethi decided to create her own film in order to get work in the industry. She described it as being a Catch 22 situation where she needed experience to get experience.

With the help of Screenwriters Bloc, her co-director, Nicole Rixon and producer, Elisha Owen, Joski-Jethi began making her debut short film.

The Bridge is a coming-of-age drama about the life of Lynn (Stephanie Rendall). Lynn experiences family hardships, like the death of her mother, early in the film, and has a practically non-existent relationship with her father. Despite this her character still has hopes for the future and aspires to be a dancer.

The brief dance sequences in the film were shot well and perhaps could have been extended.

In her own words, Joski-Jethi said that the key themes in the film are “identity and status, mainly through Lynn’s hobby of dance. She studies ballet through watching YouTube videos, as that is the only way she can afford it.

The clash of styles between the gritty narrative and balletic visuals tries to highlight that young people are able to form their own identity and self of sense despite of where they come from.”

For the most part, the acting was believable and strong but unfortunately, with the film being short, some of the character relationships and exchanges of dialogue seemed underdeveloped and scene changes seemed to occur almost too regularly.

This could be because of Joski-Jethi having so many ideas that she wanted to bring out, without much time and on a limited budget.

Joski-Jethi was able to fundraise for the film using a Kickstarter page, but in the future, if she gains more money for her projects, issues like having poor-quality microphones that to pick up all of the dialogue won’t be so prominent.

With the majority of the filming done in Selly Oak and Edgbaston, Joski-Jethi’s aim was to create a time capsule for UoB students.

A lot of the filming was done in the houses of the cast and crew, by the canal and in buildings around the area which have now been knocked down.

This gave it a personal touch and made for a lot of laughs of recognition when members of the audience saw their living room appear on the big screen.

Overall, the concept was really brilliant and the fact that Joski-Jethi and her team were able to create such a successful film as students is commendable.

I also cannot go without mentioning the original musical score by Nick Charlesworth, who is consistently wonderful.

‘The Bridge’ premiered in in the Worship Room of the Chaplaincy on the 29th March 2014.