Pigeons, Promises, and the Pause Before Honesty

Read Time:5 Minute, 20 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Flying Duo
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Genre: Drama, Short
Year Released: 2025
Runtime: 10m
Director(s): Robyn Faye
Writer(s): Emma Brunet-Campain
Cast: Charly Faye, Emma Brunet-Campain, Sofia Sá, Adam Pardy, AJ Prior, Alex Nelson, Harry Evans, Nicola Blair, Robert Gibbs, Sophie Marsden
Where to Watch: premiering at The Ritzy Picturehouse, Brixton, London, on October 15, 2025. For more information, check here: www.picturehouses.com

RAVING REVIEW: FLYING DUO is a delicate, personal, and unmistakably authentic short film that captures the ache of displacement through humor, heart, and subtle artistry. Written by Emma Brunet-Campain and directed by Robyn Faye, this ten-minute exploration of loneliness and friendship becomes a celebration of persistence—both within its story and behind the scenes. It’s the kind of short that makes viewers remember the first time they felt swallowed by a city and found comfort in someone who understood.

At its core, this is the story of Zoe (Charly Faye) and Lady (Emma Brunet-Campain), two young women who move to London chasing their respective dreams only to find the city’s promise replaced by fog—literal and emotional. They sit in Zoe’s beaten-up Beetle, eating fast food and talking about everything and nothing: pigeons, city life, and disappointment. They never quite look at each other, and that distance—so small in space, so enormous in feeling—becomes the film’s epicenter.

What makes FLYING DUO stand out is its honesty about being adrift. There’s no pretension in how it approaches the subject of migration or loneliness. The dialogue is presented naturally, like two friends circling the same thought from opposite sides, and every silence feels intentional. This is the kind of film that thrives on stillness, letting unspoken emotion fill the frame instead of relying on dialogue.

Faye’s direction transforms what could have been a static setup into a living, breathing space. The car interior becomes both sanctuary and cage, a symbol of safety that also reinforces how confined these characters feel. Cinematographer Liam Beazley captures that contrast beautifully, using tight framing to emphasize isolation and the reflective surfaces of the car to mirror both literal and figurative self-confrontation.

The film’s tone is steeped in real-world experience, and that sincerity flows directly from its creators. Brunet-Campain wrote the script based on her own move from France to London, adapting it from her poem Lonesome, a piece that already carried emotional DNA suited for cinema.

Faye’s director’s statement reinforces that shared understanding: she speaks of isolation, creative community, and the resilience required to make something when resources are scarce. That lived experience bleeds through every detail—the comfort between friends, the improvised solutions that feel both cinematic and personal, and the rainstorm that, thanks to Atom Morton’s sound design, becomes an atmospheric blessing rather than a production nightmare.

Both lead performances elevate the short beyond its simple premise. Charly Faye’s Zoe is understated and cynical, quietly masking vulnerability with humor, while Brunet-Campain’s Lady wears her displacement more openly. Their chemistry feels real because it is—this isn’t an over-rehearsed friendship but one that plays out with small hesitations, half-finished sentences, and that comforting kind of silence you can only share with someone who really knows you.

What’s especially compelling is how Faye and her collaborators make the film about more than just its two protagonists. As Faye describes, FLYING DUO became a “love letter to London” and to the team itself—an act of defiance against the belief that filmmaking requires big budgets or industry connections. That sentiment turns the short into a testament to collective creativity. You can feel the community behind the camera: friends, solving problems in real-time, and building a piece of art from pure willpower.

The editing lingers just long enough on key expressions, and the sound design captures the ambient hum of a city that never sleeps but often forgets to listen. Even when the narrative risks feeling too contained, the emotional transparency compensates. Every frame feels deliberate, every pause earned. The story leaves you wanting a bit more space to breathe. At under ten minutes, some emotions—particularly the characters’ backgrounds and what drew them to London—only hint at their depth. But perhaps that’s the point. Loneliness isn’t something that is resolved in a single scene; it lingers, unresolved, and the film respects that ambiguity.

FLYING DUO fits perfectly into a growing movement of intimate, female-driven stories about belonging and identity. Its creative trio—Faye, Brunet-Campain, and producer Charly Faye—represent the next generation of filmmakers using collaboration, empathy, and lived experience to tell stories that might otherwise go unseen.

In just under ten minutes, FLYING DUO accomplishes what many longer features struggle to achieve: authenticity. It’s not about finding all the answers; it’s about realizing that even in loneliness, connection can take root. The film captures stillness—the kind that teaches you who you are when the city around you won’t stop moving.

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[photo courtesy of FRACASSANTES COLLECTIVE]

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