December 8, 2023 |
Trigger Warning: discussion of sexual violence, coercion.
Molly Manning-Walker, 30, has a knack for crafting stories that speak to the human experience. The filmmaker’s first feature film, How To Have Sex, is an unfiltered commentary on the insidious realities of sexual violence.
The story follows Tara, Skye and Em, three teens on the anxious brink of adulthood, celebrating the conclusion of their GCSEs by sporting sparkling eyeshadow and taking shots of cheap vodka in the party town of Malia on the Greek island of Crete. After meeting Paddy, Paige and the peroxide-blonde Badger, the group embark on a spirit-soaked coming-of-age marathon of sweaty clubs and drinking games, before descending into a bleak exploration of peer pressure and sexual expectations. Arriving on the island a virgin, Tara is subtly belittled by Skye and pressured by her sex-crazed environment before she eventually becomes the victim of two incidents of sexual violence committed by Paddy. Despite its harrowing subject matter, the power of this film lies in its avoidance of sexualisation and shock factor. It tells a real story, one that happens every day, and one that most women can, in some way, relate to. With one in four women having been raped or sexually assaulted in their lifetime, according to a 2023 report by the Office for National Statistics, this film is hard to watch, but for many, all too easy to empathise with.
When Manning-Walker first set out to make this film – which has now been awarded the Prize of Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival – it was to reflect her own experiences with sexual consent. “I went on lots of these holidays growing up, and I guess I hadn’t realised the importance they had on our concept of consent until I reflected on them at a later date,” she says. Assessing a scene in the film which shows Badger receiving oral sex on stage in front of hundreds of whooping partygoers, the young director highlights that this was based on a real-life event during a personal, parallel holiday in Magaluf. “It’s mad that that happened and that everyone thought it was kind of normal at the time,” posits Manning-Walker, “so I started writing and then ended up here.”
vest by WAX LONDON, top, shorts, socks and shoes by GUCCI
Having experienced these types of holidays, and being a survivor of sexual violence herself, Manning-Walker perfects the art of having a conversation with her audience. She nods to things her audience knows to be true. Her skill of speaking with you, not at you, is felt throughout.
This effortlessness transverses each of the film’s explored themes. The role of friendship sticks out especially, with friends of both Paddy and Tara contributing to the creation of an environment where sexual violence can be carried out without repercussion. The scene that depicts Paddy’s second act of sexual violence against Tara starts with a gleeful Skye bringing the assailant into Tara’s bedroom, under the guise of it being something she would want. Badger, who is portrayed as the more likeable and friendly of the two boys, is shown in one scene stating to a despondent Tara that Paddy is a “nightmare of a mate” and they’re only friends because they live on the same street. By trying to explain away his association with Paddy, Badger implies something much more grim – that he has been aware of his friend’s behaviour in the past, but has failed to call him out on it or cut him off.
Guilt-ridden and marred by culpability, these scenes speak to a wider issue that is often ignored in narratives relating to sexual violence. Although the assault is the fault of the perpetrator, the environment that facilitates its capacity to occur is multifaceted – it doesn’t start and end with that single, violent action. Speaking on the decision to include this display of “enabling”, Manning-Walker says, “We didn’t want to make a film that locked men out, we wanted to make a film that showed it was a societal issue rather than just saying ‘all men are bad.’ I think in the past that’s something that has been offered up and it fails to move the conversation forward. Trying to make something that says ‘we need to talk about it all together’, rather than aggressing one side, felt like the right thing to do.”
coat and shoes by PAUL SMITH, trousers by DOROTHEE SCHUMACHER, socks by GUCCI
Mia McKenna-Bruce – the up-and-coming actress who plays Tara – has been largely praised for her stellar performance, conveying her character’s confusion and emotional turmoil with necessary depth and nuance. “Mia has this amazing ability to do something with her eyes and something completely different with her body and face,” notes Manning-Walker. What Mia’s performance aptly communicates is the sedimentation of victim blaming in contemporary society. It saturates our culture to such an extent that Tara doesn’t feel she can express her discomfort, even to her closest friends. This is often the case for young women, who feel like they cannot disclose incidents of sexual violence. In a report by End Violence Against Women, published January 2023, a third of school girls across England, Scotland and Wales think schools wouldn’t take it seriously if they reported sexual harassment and less than 16 percent of female rape victims in England and Wales actually report it to the police according to a 2021 report by the Office for National Statistics.
“We had an intimacy coordinator on set who choreographed the assault – actually anything intimate. We also had a therapist available,” Manning-Walker says, “but we also played football every Sunday. It was about creating a culture where we could stop and help each other, or talk about emotions at any time.” Understanding the significance of open dialogue to survivors navigating the aftermath of sexual violence, is a true testament to the film’s foundations.
Nightlife can often feel like a tool for blurring the lines between reality and dystopia, where coercive behaviour starts to lose its reprehensibility when drenched in lights that beam through a nightclub. “The space is really sexualised,” says Manning-Walker, “there is a sort of pressure that we felt, when we went to those places at that age, to have sex or to get with as many people as possible. It becomes a bit of a ticking time [bomb] where it feels like you have to do it within the holiday and if you don’t, you’ve failed.” Manning-Walker explores this pressure with the same talented subtlety she injects into everything else, using music to do so. After Paddy’s initial act of sexual violence, the group embark on a characteristic night just one day after. Tara’s increasingly distressed mood culminates with her mounting a platform and erratically dancing to an ear-blistering bass line. Speaking on this scene, Manning-Walker highlights that – during the two weeks spent scouting Malia as a location – it became evident to the team that bass lines can be so aggressive they “can really drive you mad.” She continues, “You can’t sleep because there are three different bass frequencies at one time and you’re really discombobulated by it. When me and James [Jacob, the composer for the film] were talking about the music, we discussed using the bass as an aggressor.” Not wanting to glamourise the sexual violence, Manning-Walker highlights how they preferred to “show it through [Tara’s] emotions,” using “the bass almost as a representation of the assault.”
shirt, coat and shorts by KENZO, trousers by MM6 MAISON MARGIELA, shoes by PAUL SMITH
What Molly Manning-Walker has done with How To Have Sex shouldn’t be understated. It’s a poignant portrayal of rape culture, deftly intertwining the complex facets of victim blaming and external circumstances to reveal a system that not only perpetuates sexual violence, but allows perpetrators to escape punishment.
Having grown up in a world of writers, directors and animators, the award-winning cinematographer and film director, started out as a freelance DoP, quickly finding her footing as a multi-hyphenate filmmaker. Based in London, Manning-Walker made her directorial debut in 2020 with the emotional short film Good Thanks, You? – which was included in the 59th edition of Semaine De La Critique program at Cannes – after graduating from the National Film and Television School with an MA in Cinematography in 2019. Having created commercials for Diesel, Dior, Nike and Gucci and companies like KFC, Uber Eats, Co-op, the NHS and Pride in London – even making music videos for musicians A$AP Rocky and Kwaye – over the course of her short but fruitful career, Manning-Walker has proven her aptitude across documentary, fiction and commercial films time and time again. Recently, the queer creator shot Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize-winning feature film Scrapper, directed by Charlotte Regan. When asked about her goals as a filmmaker, Manning-Walker says: “I hope to keep telling important stories.”
Top image: vest by WAX LONDON, coat by AMI PARIS, trousers by MM6 MAISON MARGIELA, shoes by ADIDAS. Should you need to speak to someone regarding an incident of sexual violence, you can contact Rape Crisis England and Wales toll free at +44 (0)808 500 2222. For more information, click here.
top, blazer and coat by AMI PARIS, trousers by FENDI, shoes by ADIDAS
Creative Director & Photographer ISAAC LAMB
Fashion Editor AURELIE MASON-PEREZ
Talent MOLLY MANNING-WALKER
Producer ANNIE MAGUIRE
Photographer’s assistants MILAN RODRIGUEZ and FINN WARRING
Fashion assistant HALLE BAYLY
Hair MASAYOSHI FUJITA
Make-up ELI WAKAMATSU at Stella Creative Artists using Byredo.
Retouch TALLY FRANCIS
Production assistant RYI ISBELL
Talent Press Agent TAPESTRY LONDON
Creative’s Press Agent LOVE THE MESSAGE
