Ciaran Lyons
Writer-director
Scotland, UK
Ciaran is a Scottish/Irish writer-director based in Glasgow. After training as an architect, he directed over 50 music videos before self- funding his short folk-horror “The Motorist” by working as an editor and VFX artist. “The Motorist” won Best Film at Berlin British Shorts, and was nominated for a Scottish BAFTA. Other shorts include BFI commissioned body- horror “The Mad Shagger”, and a sci-fi film commissioned by Scottish Ballet, “Odyssey”. In 2023, he completed his debut feature “Tummy Monster”, a psychological horror about tattoos and tummy rubbing – again, self- funded from VFX work.
Project
Obedience
In a bleak, former mining town, Michael, an unemployed, downward-spiralling alcoholic learns that his teenage sweetheart lisa, is pregnant with his baby – but that she doesn’t want him to be part of the child’s life.
With vague plans of turning his life around and changing lisa’s mind, Michael takes a job under mysterious circumstances at a dilapidated mansion as the live-in-servant of Cilla – a former popster, now in her 50s, a laughing stock, a recluse, and an occultist.
Michael’s ’work’ is a blur of erotically-charged servility, candlelit dinners, and virtuoso pop performances. He is soon entranced by Cilla’s shadowy glamour and her insistence upon their joint special destiny. Seizing the opportunity to reinvent himself, Michael convinces Cilla to make a return to the public eye – starting with a gig he organises at the local ex-miner’s club. But as the gig and the birth of his child rush towards him, Michael struggles to distinguish between what is real, and what is important – and whether he can hold on to either.
