Rob Munday
Inspired by the real life story of a Chinese woman who spent seven days inside a local KFC after her boyfriend broke up with her, Tamar Glezerman’s perfectly-titled FILL YOUR HEART WITH FRENCH FRIES is a touching short examining heartbreak and its repercussions in modern times.
Initially drawn to the story of the dumped KFC lady because she found it to be a “really endearing and extremely earnest epitome of that state of mind”, it would be a couple of years before Glezerman actually committed this narrative to film.
Admitting she returned to the story because she wanted to use it to “examine how heartbreak is dealt with in the age of the quest for wellness”, FILL YOUR HEART WITH FRENCH FRIES feels like just the right mix of classical storyline and modern twist.
Pitch-perfect and bustling with endearing moments (the scene with the police officer being my favourite), you might be forgiven for initially writing off Glezerman’s 20-minute ‘short sad comedy’ as just another film about heartache, but stick with it (it is a little long in the tooth) and you’ll be surprised just how relatable, witty and relevant it is.
“I got to write satisfyingly dumb lines like – you say potato, I say potato, we both say french fries”
Shot in the Winter of 2016 (on a RED EPIC with Cooke Anamorphic lenses), Glezerman reveals one of the fun challenges during the production of creating FILL YOUR HEART WITH FRENCH FRIES was getting to create the fast food location FryBaby’s from scratch.
“We created uniforms, hats, posters, stickers for cups, a new menu, three jingles, a radio commercial and even new branding for the soda fountain”, says Glezerman. “Writing the commercials was a treat, as I got to write satisfyingly dumb lines like – you say potato, I say potato, we both say french fries!”
Now working on an animated pilot about how terrible the internet is and a dark musical comedy feature script (working title: Gayvengers), we are already super intrigued here at Short of the Week to see how these two projects are going to turn out.