By Amy Fleming
From issue 58, January 2020
Unlike the main character in his semi autobiographical feature film about coming of age in Stroud, writer and director Guy Davies has never fantasised about escaping small-town life. “When I was growing up,” he says, “everyone was so desperate to leave but I personally think it's wonderful here.”
And so the film, Philophobia (definition: fear of falling in love), which follows the acute highs and lows of a group of teenage boys throughout their final few days of school, avoids the sallow, gritty tropes you might expect from a tale of British provincial youth. “Some of the summers that I had out here were just absolutely glorious and vibrant and there's so much colour in the countryside,” says Davies. The heady days of his protagonists whirl between euphoria, fear, anxiety and sexual tension amidst golden sunsets, dapple lit forests, misty valleys and a sparkling swimming lake.
Despite his loyalty to Stroud, Davies hasn’t been home much of late. The final quarter of 2019 was spent on the film-festival circuit, upon which Philophobia has been steadily hoovering up prizes. There were two at San Diego International Film Festival, including best global film. It won best feature film at both the Melbourne Lift Off Film Festival and the International Film Festival of Wales, where Davies also scooped the best director award. Joshua Glenister won best actor in Wales, too, for his portrayal of sensitive, bookish lead character, Kai (beating Timothy Spall).
Davies has been making films in Stroud since he was still at Wycliffe School in Stonehouse (which he left a decade ago). During his early 20s he set up production company, Zebrafish Media, in the town with old friends. But his work has often taken him away. There was a year spent studying cinematography at the New York Film Academy. There have been music-video and commercial shoots elsewhere in the US, along with weekly commutes to London and many a film set further afield.
Davies started adapting the screenplay for Philophobia, his first feature film, from an idea for a short that his old friend and Zebrafish co-founder Matt Brawley, had previously started. Davies picked it up idly as an excuse for some creative me-time while in San Diego working on a commercial for a fitness brand. Brawley’s script, says Davies, “had some of the same characters in, and it was set on the rooftop of the Library, which is one of the places where we used to hang out.” In the film, said hangout is the scene of stoner tomfoolery, bullying and longing glances, but sadly all this can no longer be replicated by Stroud’s youth. “It’s all fenced off now,” laments Davies.
By the end of that week in San Diego, says Davies, “I got a rough draft of the whole script. And then I didn't do anything with it for four years.” In January 2017, determined to make a first feature, he started rifling through his scripts, “and I thought this one had the most legs, and I was most interested in it,” he recalls. “So then I rewrote it, and I started raising money and all that jazz and set a date to start filming on the 31st of July.”
“It was the easiest thing I've ever written,” he says, “because I was really familiar with the characters and how they would behave. They’re an amalgamation of people I know.” This meant he could be sure of their authenticity, a priority he carries with him as a director: “The main thing I'm doing is asking myself if it feels honest, if I believe it.”
He says he wanted to tell the story through the cinematography as much as possible, and the results stunningly project the clandestine thrills of teenage lust, the pull between freedom and restriction and each characters’ journeys as they veer between hope, heartbreak, mundanity, thrill seeking and for some, catastrophe.
“I was focused on things being more saturated and having luscious greens and warm sunsets,” says Davies. “A lot of our references were more from Americana films, such as The Spectacular Now.” Davies recommends this 2013 film about teenage lovers, directed by James Ponsoldt as an underrated must see. He also cites the 2012 US small-town crime drama, The Place Beyond the Pines, as an influence.
Most of the main characters in Philophobia have absent fathers. “It was something that I was curious about,” says Davies. “I noticed that there was a lot of fatherlessness, not in my own life but among my extended friendships.” When, in the film, Kai seeks solace alone in the countryside, a vast stag appears, representing a paternal presence. “It presents itself in moments when he would want to talk to his father, or get some advice or has an anxiety about something,” says Davies. It’s an effective device, in fact the stag deserves an Oscar for his turn as a wise and protective spirit. “We got him from a zoo in Oxford,” says Davies. “He was amazing, like a dog, you could just tell him to do anything and he would.”
Symbolic spirit animal or not, being able to disappear into nature must be quite a source of strength when you’re young and need to sort your head out. “I think that's a huge strength,” says Davies. “There's something about being alone in nature which is quite human. It's probably something genetic. It is an environment where you can be honest with yourself - nature is not judgmental.”
At the heart of the film lies some strong childhood friendships, but will these bonds weaken after school’s out for good? Davies’ own friendship group, he says, despite moving all over the world, is incredibly close. “I think maybe friendship is a little bit stronger here, because there's less people and everyone knows each other, and people get bonded for a long period of time. We had a lot of long summers, lounging around not doing much.”
For further info including news and screenings (including VUE cinema in Stroud and the Electric Picture House in Wotton-Under-Edge) visit philophobiafilm.com and follow the film on social media @philophobiafilm
Amy Fleming is a writer and editor for the Guardian, who also contributes to Intelligent Life, the FT, Vogue, Newsweek, New Scientist and more.
UPDATE: Philophobia will be opening in over 40 cinemas across the UK on October 30th. Visit philophobiafilm.com/screenings for the full list.