''Glasshouse'' is a 2021 South African dystopian thriller film directed by

Kelsey Egan Kelsey-Colin Kass Egan (born 20 March 1983) is an American-South African filmmaker, actress, and stunt performer. She founded the Cape Town-based production company Crave Pictures. Her short film ''Gargoyle'' (2009) and science fiction film '' Gl ...

in her feature debut and co-written by Egan and Emma Lungiswa de Wet. It premiered at the 2021

Fantasia International Film Festival Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...

. The first in a trio, it was made available to stream on

DStv Digital Satellite Television, commonly abbreviated to DStv, is a Sub-Saharan African direct broadcast satellite service owned by MultiChoice and based in Randburg, South Africa. Launched on 6 October 1995, the service provides multiple audio, ...

's Box Office and on

Showmax Showmax is an online subscription video on demand (SVOD) service which launched in South Africa on 19 August 2015. Showmax uses a localisation strategy to take on established video on demand competitors with a focus on local content and partner ...

in February 2022. Following a screening at the 2021

Sci-Fi-London Sci-Fi-London (stylised as SCI-FI-LONDON), also known as The London International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film or simply SFL, is an annual United Kingdom-based film festival dedicated to the science fiction and fantasy genres. ...

, it had a 10 January 2022 digital release in the United Kingdom distributed by Signature Entertainment. The film received six nominations at the 2022

South African Film and Television Awards South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...

, including Best Feature Film, winning five of them.

Premise

As a dementia-like toxin that wipes people's memories known as the Shred spreads, a family of a mother, three daughters, and one son isolate themselves in a

greenhouse A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...

, which the mother calls the Sanctuary. Their ritualistic idyll is disrupted when the eldest daughter invites a wounded stranger into their home.

Cast

Jessica Alexander Jessica Caroline Alexander (born 19 June 1999) is an English actress. She began her career in short films and the Disney series ''Penny on M.A.R.S.'' (2018–2020). Alexander had her breakout role in the BBC iPlayer series '' Get Even'' (2020), ...

as Bee * Anja Taljaard as Evie *

Hilton Pelser Hilton or Hylton may refer to: Companies * Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Inc., a global hospitality company based in the United States that owns several hotel chains and subsidiary companies containing the Hilton name ** Hilton Hotels & Resorts, f ...

as the Stranger *

Adrienne Pearce Adrienne Pearce (sometimes credited as Pierce or Pearse) is a South African actress, dancer, and voiceover artist. Her films include ''Proteus'', '' The Bone Snatcher'', ''Van der Merwe'', ''Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell'', and ''Glasshouse (film ...

as Mother * Brent Vermeulen as Gabe * Kitty Harris as Daisy

Production

Principal photography took place in the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...

beginning in October 2020. De Wet, who grew up in the province, wrote the script with the Pearson Conservatory at St George's Park in mind.

Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality ( af, Nelson Mandelabaai Metropolitaanse Munisipaliteit; xh, uMasipala wase Nelson Mandela Bay or ''uMasipala waseBhayi'') is one of eight metropolitan municipalities (also called Category A municipalities) in So ...

granted the creators permission to use it as a filming location for six weeks, and they hired local crew for the film.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported an approval rating of 90% based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 13724054 2020s English-language films 2020s dystopian films Apocalyptic films Films about memory Films about viral outbreaks Films shot in the Eastern Cape Folk horror films Gothic horror films Post-apocalyptic films South African thriller films South African science fiction thriller films English-language South African films English-language Showmax original programming 2021 directorial debut films 2021 films