A film about connection in the literal and metaphorical sense – daily interactions chart the sense of loneliness and concerns of one individual. A single woman in her 30s living in London, struggles with feelings of isolation and decides to call up various customer care lines in search of connection. She pushes the boundaries of the people she speaks to, with varying results. She seeks dating advice from her bank, talks about films with her doctor, and bonds with her Internet provider over the topic of reincarnation. Call centers become a backdrop for conversations about the meaning of life and big city loneliness.
Tender Loving Care is a meditation on the sense of belonging within a multicultural metropolis. It is a critique of consumerism, the impact it has on individuals and the quality of their relationships, as well as an analysis on communication in the digital age. It is a framework of rules and roles that are there to be broken and subverted, a story of contrast and duality, swirling between what is professional and what is personal, public or private, playful or serious.
The film is an extended version of a shorter one commissioned for Straight8 Shootout that premiered at Cannes Film Festival last summer. According to Straight8 competition rules, it was shot on one roll of Super8 film, with no editing and a ‘blind’ soundtrack created separately with no preview of the film. The full version of the film (20 minutes), shot on 16mm and Super8, features a structure in three acts, an expanded narrative and an original score.