Here is a claustrophobic thriller that unfolds entirely inside a small telephone exchange on the island of Alderney in the early 1960s; it features just one actor visible throughout, with other characters only heard through the telephone lines. Writer-director-producer Oliver Pearn, making his feature debut here after working as an assistant director and the like, is laying down a crisp white calling card by showing off how economically he can tell a story. While this sometimes feels less like cinema and more like a stage piece or even a radio play, the end result is reasonably engaging and propulsive.
Pearn gets a crucial assist from lead Victoria Lucie who plays Agnes, an operator who spends her days inside a hut working the complex machinery of the exchange; these were the days when you couldn’t just dial a number to call someone but had to be literally connected via wires being plugged into sockets. With a few calculatedly planted lines we work out that Agnes is a personable young woman, the proud winner of a Best Voice competition for phone operators. However, she’s keen to be taken a bit more seriously, not just by her customers on the island but also her fiance Frank (Thomas Bliss), with whom she checks in regularly throughout the day to discuss wedding plans and share chit chat.
