Genre Drama

Parliament Girls (2024)

Item: Parliament Girls
Rating: 2.0
Author: Ross McLaren

★★ — Parliament Girls (2024)

Short films from the Caribbean are a rare find on most watchlists, which makes Parliament Girls (2024) something of a curio worth paying attention to. St. Vincent and the Grenadines has a film culture that is, to put it charitably, still finding its feet. The country's output is thin enough that a new feature, let alone a short, represents a genuine event for anyone tracking cinema from that part of the world. Against that backdrop, director Akley Olton and production company Island Rebel Media have put together a 17-minute drama that tackles one of the most serious social issues facing women across the Caribbean: sexual violence and the institutional failures that allow perpetrators to go unpunished. The film frames this through the story of Shandy, a teenage dancer who, after her own ordeal, teams up with two vigilantes to expose a serial rapist and force some form of reckoning. It is the kind of subject matter that demands care, and the choices made in telling it are very much part of what this film ends up being about.

Olton is working in territory that has attracted filmmakers from across the world, of course. Stories centring on young women confronting violence and corrupt power structures have produced everything from quiet, character-led pieces (the Turkish drama Mustang being a particularly well-regarded example of the genre) to full-throttle action films like Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Where Parliament Girls sits on that spectrum is part of what makes it an interesting, if not uncomplicated, watch. The production is carried by a cast headed up by Ulrica Gaymes, La Fayette Johnson, Kevie Huggins, Shantel Mayers, and Sheniece Greene. None of these are names with a long screen history behind them (the film itself has virtually no prior presence on standard review databases), which gives the whole project a grassroots, community-made quality. That is not a criticism; some of the most honest film-making comes from exactly this sort of place, where the budget is modest and the motivation is personal. What the cast bring is a visible investment in the story being told, and in a film this short, conviction counts for a great deal.

It is also worth noting the short format itself. Seventeen minutes is enough time to establish a situation and a mood, but it puts real pressure on pacing and message. There is no room to sit with ambiguity or to layer things carefully; every scene has to carry weight. Short drama has produced some genuinely memorable work (the Bangladesh-set Moshari is one example of recent short film-making that punches well above its running time), but it is a format that punishes any wobble in focus or intention. With that context in mind, here is what I made of it.

A-Z World Movie Tour St Vincent and the Grenadines FIRST LETTERBOXD REVIEW FOR THIS FILM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2EuvhPReXg This is a short film about vigilantism. According to the statistic shown one in 40% of women in the Caribbean will experience violence from their partners. That's a worrying statistic. The film starts off with Shandy (the main character) having dinner and making plans to go out in the evening. Her mum is concerned for her safety (I think because she herself was attacked earlier in life) It was pretty well put together considering St Vincent & The Grenadines don't exactly have a long library of films. The film is clearly made with heart in the right place but I think it's a dangerous message to send and could get more women hurt if we're encouraging them to physically take to the streets, weapon up and attack suspected wrongdoers. I respect the passion and the message but overall it wasn't executed all that well

I suppose what lingers for me is that tension between what a film is trying to say and how it chooses to say it. The heart here is obviously in the right place, and for a country with so little screen history, the fact that this exists at all, that someone picked up a camera and said this story matters, is not nothing. But good intentions and good film-making are not always the same thing, and when the subject matter is as serious as this, the gap between the two can start to feel uncomfortable. It is the kind of film I am glad I watched as part of a broader world cinema tour, even if I would not rush back to it. Sometimes a film's reach exceeding its grasp tells you almost as much as one that gets everything right.

Rating: ★★ | Year: 2024 | Watched: 2025-08-28

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