
In an increasingly cynical world and a time where we seem to see the elderly as a burden and inconvenient problem to fix, Katia Shannon’s sharply witted romance short Us & In Between is a welcome breath of fresh air. Centred around two long lost lovers, who find themselves together again after decades of separation, Shannon has lovingly built a multi-layered narrative which proves that love, sex and passion have no age limit whilst pointing a critical finger at the way in which we treat our elderly, particularly within the so-called care system. Visually Us & In Between bathes its audience in a hazy romanticism fitting to its central storyline and effectively plays with the aesthetic choice of bold colours, vibrancy and light. The whole endeavour is brought together by shrewd little punches of comedy which not only releases moments of tension but find light in the dark. As Us & In Between premieres on the pages of DN, we find out how Shannon shaped the tone of the film purposely for younger audiences, establishing the palpable chemistry between her two leads and having a giant mood board on set constantly reminding everyone of their intentions and motives in the film.
What or who inspired this beautifully touching later in life love story?
Us & in Between is inspired by my grandmother Éloïse’s romanticism, vitality, and rebellious spirit. She lived in the apartment upstairs in our Montreal duplex so we were close. She was a child of the Great Depression from the east end of Montreal and had to leave school at the age of 12. What she couldn’t pursue then, she did later in life. She volunteered at retirement homes with residents younger than herself and learned Latin at the age of 79. She strongly believed in the power of first love. At 85, Éloïse became too ill to stay at home and went into the care system. During my daily visits, I witnessed first-hand how the care environment can strip individuals of their agency by using a childlike tone which gradually eroded her feeling of competency and dignity. As I dug deeper into research, I realised that care homes are designed to do their best to keep you alive physically and the generalised lack of resources means priorities are drawn and compromises are made. There are also some places where open-door policies are aimed at reducing risk which systematically prevents any real sense of intimacy. The sexuality of residents is often overlooked or not considered essential, and that inspired the setting for Us & in Between.
In contrast, Éloïse was hungry to make the most out of life in every situation, and that shaped my perception of the richness of growing older (as well as my mistrust of institutions). To harness her spirit in the script, I evoke the transformational power of new love at any age, and I hope to inspire an intergenerational conversation that presents time as a gift to embrace.
I believe that great comedy has tragic elements, and if you can combine the two successfully, you can touch your audience through the coexistence of the critical and the humorous.
How did you approach highlighting the ineptitude of care homes within a light-hearted comedy?
That was one of the trickiest things to balance, but the key was focusing on the lack of intimacy and pushing that to an extent where its effects on the characters became humorous. All the while, the characters are self-aware of the ridiculousness of their own situation in order to avoid being defined by it. I believe that great comedy has tragic elements, and if you can combine the two successfully, you can touch your audience through the coexistence of the critical and the humorous. My favourite comedy is based in situations where you remove normal inhibitions, or where the expectations of the characters in the scene are surprising, so instead of sinking into the tragic elements, you bounce off them to keep the tone light.

Was there an additional draw of working with such seasoned and experienced actors?
There are few things as enjoyable for me as watching two actors with good chemistry. For Us & in Between, finding the right leads was key to enable the audience to believe in their love and root for them. I am so grateful to our casting director Suzy Catliff who did an outstanding job in finding Kika Markham and David Hargreaves and bringing them and the rest of the cast on board. I met Kika and David several times before filming, first to get to know them (as Kika and David have been friends for years already) and then to go over the script. I like doing dry reads and talking about the characters in detail. We also had a traditional rehearsal day, where I tested the situational comedy alongside the legendary stand-up comic, Peter Rethinasamy (who plays one of the nurses) to see if I needed to adjust anything before the shoot. It was also Peter’s first step into film, so this was useful to shed the stage nerves ahead of filming and break the ice.
When you walk through the script with them, they not only understand the subtext and its implications, but also the kernels of truths that your subconscious puts into the writing.
Working with veteran actors Kika and David was so thrilling. Firstly, they are immensely talented, and secondly, they bring six decades of craft, which is a tremendous asset to a director. When you walk through the script with them, they not only understand the subtext and its implications, but also the kernels of truths that your subconscious puts into the writing and they raise it from the depth of the story and put it on screen.
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Representation matters in all its forms and it is such a delight to see a love story with an older couple with some eroticism. Did you use an intimacy coordinator?
We offered it to both of our main performers, but they opted out. Partly because they have a long-standing friendship and ease with each other already, and partly because it made them more comfortable to have fewer people involved. I also was not going in cold, as three years ago, I also took a course at RADA taught by Yarit Dor about how to approach intimate and difficult scenes and how to establish, communicate and respect boundaries. So, for the level of intimacy required in this film, I felt sufficiently equipped to handle it with care and adapt to the needs of the actors but ultimately it was their choice to not involve one.







Tell us more about your cinematography and building the lush romantic look of the film.
Knowing my target audience is important in shaping the tone of the film. For Us & in Between, I wanted to appeal to younger audiences and subvert the reductive vision of growing older a lot of people have. In that light, the coming-of-age genre became an inspiration for my aesthetic choices, highlighting the couple’s assertion, desires, and rebellion. Whenever Agnes or Eddie are on screen together, bold colours remind us of their youthful interior life and the intensity of their love, contrasting with their institutional surroundings.
We shot at Ingestre Hall in Staffordshire, a council-run arts residential centre that used to be the stately home of the Earls of Shrewsbury. The film benefited from the wide doorways, long hallways and having everything in a single location. This was my second collaboration with BSC and Camerimage-nominated Director of Photography Tristan Chenais, so we had a shorthand we could use to align on ideas. We shot on an Arri LF, mostly using Leica Summilux lenses to take advantage of the shallow depth of field and create a feeling of softness and tenderness between the characters. Another staple of the visual approach for this film is having a fluid camera that gently hones in on the characters, with swift pans to highlight interruptions. We were on a hydraulic dolly for most of the shoot, and I love it because it’s so efficient between takes and easy to adjust once the blocking is set.
The coming-of-age genre became an inspiration for my aesthetic choices, highlighting the couple’s assertion, desires, and rebellion.
On set, I like having a giant mood board nearby with my storyboard and reference images visible to everyone. When talking through the next shot, having a visual cue speeds up communication and creative alignment with each department. It also allows me to deviate from the plan if we see something better on the day while keeping the larger picture in mind. These were built over the course of several months, where Tristan and I sent each other references to create a mini database, and then we whittled it down to find our style once we had a confirmed location. Then we created a distinct mood board for each scene which was printed and our production assistants would pin the mood boards just outside of the room we were filming. As we were shooting, Tristan and I would be able to reconnect with our intentions for each scene even with all the busyness of a film set. Sometimes an image was a framing reference, sometimes colour or blocking. Our costume designer Natalie Caroline Wilkins and production designer Lerato Moloisane also made their own mood boards, which came into play earlier in pre-production in the sourcing of costumes and materials. In both cases, they came to me with their vision of the story, and I chose them as creatives because their ideas closely matched the direction I was taking the film in.

Tell us about the swathes of music which are so evocative of their past and present love.
Music plays a huge part in my storytelling, and the challenge with Us & in Between was that I wanted three very different types of music. Tyler Brown had scored two of my previous shorts. He is a very instinctive composer and worked off the script to send me a taster track, which I loved and used as-is in the film because he had nailed the film’s mood. Then came the jazz piece which he is listening to that reveals their backstory. I wanted it to encapsulate their story and slip from music overlaid on top of the film to being a diegetic part of the film within the same scene. I collaborated with Jazz singer and songwriter Lucinda Fosker, who wrote and performed the original piece. She’s also my neighbour so we were running down the street in our slippers comparing notes and test tracks which was fun.
Lastly, I was looking for something contemporary and spellbinding to track the escalation of their love. Turning to Montreal-based musician Delachute, they sent me a few work-in-progress tracks to test out in the edit, and I settled on a collaboration track with Spanish band Palladian. It all came together with our location sound recordist Declan Chew, Sound Designer and Mixer Ben Carr and grade by Tom Matthews at Cheat.
Getting a fresh pair of eyes at that stage in the process was so liberating, and he saw beauty and opportunity where I might have focused on what I would have liked to change about the take.

Were there any particular scenes that required changes in the edit from what you had envisaged?
Mark van Heusden edited the film, and getting his perspective and ideas early was instrumental in capturing opportunities that were swift moments in the script, but that had the potential to help with transitions and ease the passage of time in the edit. It was also the first time I didn’t edit my own directing, and now there is no going back for me. Getting a fresh pair of eyes at that stage in the process was so liberating, and he saw beauty and opportunity where I might have focused on what I would have liked to change about the take. The order of the scenes remained the same as the script and Mark got the key moments of the film set quite quickly. However, our original edit was 21 minutes long. We cut some scenes that showed us more about Agnes’ initial reaction to being in this institution and how she reacted to arriving. They were just three lines long in the script but slowed down the rhythm too much in the edit, so we had to let them go.
What are you working on next?
I’ve taken some time to produce a feature film, Thanks to the Hard Work of the Elephants, directed by Bryce Hodgson, which is now in post-production. Now, I’m writing a half-hour comedy series called Vi, which shares similar touch points to Us & in Between. Once I have delivered that, I will dive back into two features at different stages: a contemporary thriller and a bittersweet romantic drama set in the 1760s. I’ve also developed a talent incubator through my production company, and I am using that to develop projects with other writers. I noticed that a few very talented writers were looking for a trusted and creative environment to develop their projects, so this is an umbrella for that. The idea is that once they get to a solid script, we pair them with established production companies and I can transition from development producer to director.