Where to start with this one. It’s odd. It has a deadpan, almost dour like delivery. It reminded me of a Yorgos Lanthimos film in terms of atmosphere and dialogue, crossed with the pace and tone of Christopher Nolan’s ‘Following’. It is a very sparse, one dimensional film that has little to no tension or action to speak of, and instead relies on a series of life lessons for the lead character Julie. The last half hour has an almost meta / documentary feel to it – and it’s at the point you realise that it is basically a Biography by Director Joanna Hogg that it all clicks. It's a film about a young female film director, directed by a female film director.

It’s at this point you begin to ask yourself – are we seeing a slice of life in the early 80s that the Director went through? Is she Julie? Is this film that we are actually watching – the result of that experience? Instead of making a film about a boy in Sunderland, Julie is told to relate more to her actual experiences, which will mean her work will have more of a connection to her. Her privilege, her ups and downs etc. So ‘Souvenir’ seems to be literally her tale of how the film came into being. Which is a rather brilliant concept. Right down to the painting called ‘The Souvenir’ – in which a young girl (also named Julie) carves the initials of her lover into a tree. The viewer then begins to understand and empathize with Julie about how she's perhaps at a turning point in her life and is as naive as she is.

I’d hesitate to recommend this film to anybody as it is probably a little abstract / obscure compared to your average movie. But it is one for those who like to be challenged.