Post-production on Jersey-born filmmakers Jordan Cox and Áine Rose Daly’s directorial debut has been completed.
The film, made under the duo’s creative pseudonym ‘Syvret Rose,’ is now being submitted to festivals.
The short crime thriller ‘More Than It Hurts You’ tackles the complex and often misunderstood experience of living with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), drawing deeply from personal experience, particularly Áine’s, who has lived with the condition since childhood.
The film does not aim to explain OCD clinically but rather immerses the viewer inside the emotional reality of it, a distorted world shaped by fear, compulsions, and intrusive thoughts. The common preconception of OCD is generally based upon a subtype called ‘Perfectionism OCD’ which typically manifests in someone’s aversion to mess or need to be extra tidy. This is often played for laughs in the media and treated more like a personality quirk rather than what is often a completely debilitating condition. This is, however, is only 1 subtype out of many that exist in the tumultuous world of OCD and rarely get explored in the media.
Told through the heightened lens of a violent robbery gone wrong, the story follows Mae, a young woman manipulated and trapped by Kelly, a figure who symbolically represents the relentless and intrusive nature of OCD itself. Kelly exerts psychological control, forcing Mae into meaningless rituals under the illusion of safety, the embodiment of the fear, doubt and mental manipulation at the heart of OCD. In creating this world, the filmmakers aimed to give voice to the often-invisible turmoil faced by those living with OCD, offering an intense, visceral experience that resonates with sufferers while giving outsiders an emotional window into a condition that is rarely understood beyond the surface.
The film stars Áine Rose Daly (Boiling Point, HANNA), rising artist Isabella Stevenson-Olds (aka Izzy S-O, who gained viral fame as a musician on Instagram and TikTok), and Scroobius Pip (Venom, House of the Dragon, The Acolyte). More Than It Hurts You was made with the support of ArtHouse Jersey.
The directors commented: “We really hope this film resonates with people who live with OCD and that they can truly empathise with what our protagonist is going through and see themselves in her. We equally hope that the film sparks conversation and interest among people who don’t really know about the condition. We are really excited to finally be able to share this project with the world after years of hard work and we’re so grateful to our amazing cast and crew and everyone who helped make this film possible, and to ArtHouse Jersey for their trust and support.”
