The Siren clings to the love of the Sailor who is sinking under the weight of his own sorrow, realising she mythologised a man who never asks to be saved.

Sailor is a five minute short film told through lyrical imagery and poetic narration. Sailor follows THE SIREN, a woman navigating the emotional wreckage of a relationship with THE SAILOR, a man consumed by sorrow.

In her eyes, he becomes mythic; Poseidon, sailor, merman, transformed by the depth of her love and imagination. She offers him oceans, storms, and salvation, but he remains tethered to his suffering, unreachable.

As she reflects on their shared past, she begins to see him not as a god, but as a man who never asked to be saved.

In letting go, she calms her own seas and finds herself again.

“Sailor” is a film born from a poem I wrote about a relationship many will recognise... when love turns into rescue and care becomes worship. It’s about what it means to mythologise someone you love, only to realise they never had the capacity to meet you in the storm you conjured just for them.

This film is, in many ways, a love letter to emotional transformation, and also to a place, the East Coast of England. When I moved to Essex I was seduced by the windswept estuaries along the Essex coast, with all its wildness and quiet melancholy which feature heavily.

I’ve always had a deep connection to folklore and mythology, which has taught me how to see the world through symbol and story, but also made it easy to romanticize pain. “Sailor” comes from that place.

It’s a visual poem about learning to step back from the myth you’ve built, and finally, see things, and people, as they are.

Niamh Handley-Vaughan

Writer & Director

Niamh Handley-Vaughan is a poet, writer, and director whose creative work explores mythology, folklore, and the gothic as vessels for navigating complex emotional landscapes.

Her poetry has appeared in Antlers, The Gentian, SEX/X/Y Zine, Anarkiss, and is forthcoming in The East Anglia Folklore Zine.

As a filmmaker and theatre-maker based in Essex, UK, Niamh is the co-founder of Midnight Circle Productions, a theatre company focused on gothic literature adaptations. Her directorial film debut The Difference She Makes: Little Blue Envelopes was shortlisted in the Nespresso Talents x BAFTA ROI/UK competition and screened at BAFTA.

https://www.instagram.com/niamhhv

Director of Photography

Richard O'Hare

Richard ‘Bucky’ O’Hare is a UK cinematographer who has worked in the film industry for 15+ years, shooting for commercials, documentaries and narrative.

He co-owns and works with the production company Orillo based in Yorkshire and their recent feature length doc which Bucky co-shot, ‘Chasing Tokyo’ won a Telly and Webby award in 2024 and currently is streaming on Discovery+.

The Ffilm Cymru and BBC Wales funded folk horror short ‘Fisitor’ which is now on iPlayer and the inaugural IHS x FEAR incubator project ‘BODY WORN VIDEO’

Bucky’s first two horror feature films released in 2025, ‘Zombies of the Third Reich’ (Amazon Prime, Apple TV) and ‘Kraken’ (Fall 25) and has just wrapped production on his latest feature ‘Fairy Dust’ which will be releasing later in 2026.

https://www.richardohare.com/

Music Composer

Stacey Silvertongue 

Stacey Silvertongue is a composer known for cinematic and emotionally honest compositions that explore the depths of human experience. Her debut album features sweeping orchestral instrumentation, recorded at Music Ape Studios, Bristol with producer Francis Forbes Edwards, mixed by Grammy-nominated engineer Nic Hard (Snarky Puppy, Bill Laurance), and mastered in New York by Joshua Kessler.

Previously, Stacey worked on a soundtrack for an aerial project focused on protected bird species in South Asia, blending field recordings and orchestral textures to highlight the delicate interplay between wildlife and environment. She also has an upcoming Arts Council-supported live string album set to be released alongside a documentary, showcasing her continued exploration of narrative and emotion through orchestral music.

https://www.instagram.com/stacey_silvertonguesax/

Nadia Lamin

Nadia Lamin will be playing our lead role of the woman, or “Siren”, in Sailor. Nadia is a British actor with Libyan and Danish roots. After graduating from East 15 Acting School, she has been working in both film and theatre, Nadia has been nominated twice for a Broadway World award (Best Leading Actor: Creature, Frankenstein and Best Supporting Actor: Isabella Linton, Wuthering Heights). On screen, she has appeared in Feed Me & Hosts (both dir Adam Leader & Richard Oaks), and Giddy Stratospheres (dir Laura Jean Marsh, Amazon Prime).

Nadia won the jury prize for best actress at the Out Of The Can film festival for her role in the film Chimera (dir Patrick Michael Rider) and was nominated three time at various film festivals for her performance in Nefarious (dir Richard Rowntree)

https://www.nadialamin.com/