IFC Film’s Swallow hits limited theaters and VoD on March 6th. We got the chance to speak with the film’s writer-director Carlo Maribella-Davis about the film. Swallow is the story of Hunter (Haley Bennett), a woman who appears to have it all. A newly pregnant housewife, she seems content to be a homemaker, cleaning and doting on her Ken-doll husband, Richie (Austin Stowell). However, as the pressure to meet her controlling in-laws and husband’s rigid expectations rises, cracks begin to appear in her carefully curated identity. Then, comes the meaning for the film’s name, when Hunter develops a dangerous habit, and a dark secret from her past seeps out in the form of a compulsive disorder called pica – a condition that has her compulsively swallowing inedible, and oftentimes life-threatening, objects.
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Maribella-Davis breaks down how he created the provocative and squirm-inducing psychological thriller, explaining his connection to the story and how he went about constructing an intimate story of a woman unraveling as she struggles to reclaim independence in the face of a patriarchal system. A story told in pastels and trauma, Swallow is a film the forces viewers to understand the trauma and pressure that triggers disorders, a choice made in how Maribella-Davis presents the narrative. You’ll even get to hear about the woman who fainted during the Tribeca Film Festival where it won Bennett won Best Actress in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film.
When I saw the film at Fantastic Fest 2019, I had a similar experience. Swallow hit me so deeply given my own experience with compulsion in the form of an eating disorder that I chose not to review it. While I love the film, I couldn’t write down how much it hit me, nor look at the film objectively. But in this interview, I got to speak with Maribella-Davis about all those little moments and get into the moments that he chose to showcase an intimate story and a personal one from his own life experience.
Click play on the audio above to hear our conversation about how Maribella-Davis created Swallow, with the intention of telling a larger story about the patriarchal pressures of society. A film closely aligned to social horror, learn more about the tightropes Carlo Maribella-Davis walked to present a story told without shock and focused on emotion.
Swallow is available on VoD. Visit the film’s website and follow Carlo Maribella-Davis on Twitter at @CMirabellaDavis and the film at @swallowmovie.
