Medusa Deluxe

British writer-director Thomas Hardiman makes his feature debut with this experimental, one-shot dark comedy set in the world of competitive hairdressing. After the murder of one of the competition’s top stylists, everyone is a suspect in this lavish, flashy, and downright outlandish whodunnit. As the story weaves its way through the competition venue, we are introduced to an ensemble of suspects, all more ridiculous than the last. With a gripping script from Hardiman and impressive snaking cinematography from Robbie Ryan, this is a head-turning debut from a bold new director to watch.

Basically the things that interest me have a high and low - hair’s about how you present yourself to the world, it’s culturally important, and then you’ve got the background gossip, and I love that. I’m always looking for that thing where you can dart between those two poles. I’m interested in comedy and I want to set things on an edge where there’s a sense of fun the whole time. It’s a great conceit to take a genre film idea and go beyond the genre and make that subservient to what the film is really about. It’s a great pitch - a murder mystery set in a regional hairdressing competition. What’s not to love?!

Thomas Hardiman, Director