Logline:

Seeking recovery from an abusive relationship, Chloe escapes into a dreamlike re- enactment of her first queer love, where fantasy and memory become her route to freedom.

Team:

Director/Writer: Alexandra Healy (IMMATERIAL - writer/ director) -  Alexandra is a Director, Screenwriter and Certified Intimacy Coordinator trained by SAG-AFTRA accredited Intimacy Directors & Coordinators (NYC). With 9 years experience in Film & TV industry, Alex's credits across feature and short films include Official Cannes Film Festival Selected short film "Ether" and Iris Prize nominated "Solers United". ‘Immaterial’ her debut short film as a writer & director, is being released into the film festival circuit in 2026.

Producers: Eva Onsrud  (NAPOLEON / MICKEY 17 / GLADIATOR II) and Emily-Jane Sheppard (THE DREADFUL, SISTER WIVES).

Why this film?

Current UK statistics show that 1 in 3 women have experienced sexual assault. ‘Pristine’ is rooted in this urgent reality and responds by centering the act of survivors breaking silence and reclaiming agency in a culture where survivors' voices are frequently questioned, or erased. The film aims to contribute to ongoing conversations around consent and bodily autonomy. It’s important to audiences that stories like this are told with authenticity and care: with the film taking inspiration from Alexandra’s own experience and her work as an intimacy coordinator informing enabling consent-led, safe work. This expertise is central to a film that engages with themes of bodily autonomy and voice. The intention is to add to the ongoing work - to not only raise awareness, but contribute to a much needed cultural shift: in which survivors stories are marked by resilience and the possibility of transforming pain into a life filled with purpose.

Synopsis:

'Pristine' is inspired by true events from the writer-director’s life. It follows Chloe, trapped in an abusive relationship, who escapes into a dreamlike re-enactment of her first queer love, a fantasy that becomes her route to freedom.

The film unfolds between two worlds: Chloe’s present reality with her boyfriend Josh, and a timeless version of London’s queer club culture. The club is a place of escapism, reinvention and collective release. In 'Pristine', it becomes Chloe’s sanctuary, a space she retreats to in her fantasies as she moves through the stages of recovery.

At the centre of the story are Chloe, Scarlett and Josh. In her early twenties, Chloe was in a loving relationship with Scarlett. Scarlett is strong willed, creative and sharply opinionated, outwardly self-assured while masking a sensitive side. Through Scarlett, Chloe experienced care, safety and emotional recognition. It is this earlier version of herself that Chloe returns to in memory.

Years later, Chloe is living with Josh, Scarlett’s former schoolmate. Josh is a nostalgia obsessed photographer who documents his life through camcorder footage. Chloe watches these recordings in an attempt to understand how their relationship shifted from loving to coercive. The footage includes moments from its beginning, including Josh filming Chloe dancing with Scarlett at a party. What once appeared romantic now feels like surveillance.

The film centres the psychological aftermath of coercion: Chloe’s bruised body, her fractured memory, and her attempt to understand how intimacy became unsafe. The narrative unfolds non-linearly, looping through recurring images and moments as Chloe revisits memory and fantasy: the club, the party, Josh’s camcorder recordings replayed until worn down like an old VHS tape. Memory and fantasy blur as she moves through anger, denial and grief, trying to locate the person she once was.

Director Statement:

Enough time had to pass since I left my own abusive relationship, before I could make 'Pristine'. That clarifying hindsight allowed me to understand the fragmented nature of recovery, reflected in the film’s narrative and inspire a fictionalised version of that experience. 

Chloe’s story arc reflects this: accepting the pain inflicted on her by someone she once loved, finding the strength to start over, navigating the pitfalls of reinvesting in the illusions of her past, and refusing to grow bitter about the future.

My own healing recontextualised my understanding of ethical cinematic storytelling and 'Pristine’ gives form to the interior experience of recovery, planting Chloe’s perspective and regaining of autonomy at the forefront of the frame. In 'Pristine', the abuse is never explicitly shown. Josh remains peripheral in the frame, often present as shadow or absence, reinforcing the imbalance of power without dominating the narrative. Instead 'Pristine' is a sequence of memories, dream sequences, epiphanic surges, hallucinatory closeups and lush swathes of music; as Chloe moves through anger, denial and grief, trying to locate the person she once was.