Game Keepers Without Game

Directed by Emily Wardill

Game Keepers Without Game is the artist’s re-imagining of the 17th-century play Life Is a Dream (La Vida es Sueño, 1635) by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. Set in contemporary London, Wardill’s meticulously constructed film tells the story of a schizophrenic young girl put up for adoption by her family at age eight. By the time she is a teenager, her father’s guilt leads him to devise a plan for her return home. Yet by this time the divide within the family is too great; the girl’s psychosis and destructive response to the objects and people around her leads to tragic consequences. Set to a hypnotic drumming soundtrack, which highlights the spatial construction of the film, the narrative unfolds with a refractive precision, juxtaposing inanimate objects with the play of multiple characters.