UK director Samuel Abrahams on mockumentary ‘Lady’, casting Sian Clifford and ‘Saltburn’ comparisons

When Samuel Abrahams’s aristocratic mockumentary Lady had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival in October, comparisons with Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn began to be made. 

“It’s not something I was drawing on as a reference point,” says Abrahams, ahead of the film’s international premiere in the first feature competition at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (POFF). “But I think it’s great, I love that people are saying that.”

Fleabag star Sian Clifford plays a lonely aristocrat who invites a film crew to follow her around her stately home under the guise of a Netflix commission. As the truth unravels, Lady Isabella finds herself becoming, quite literally, invisible.

Abrahams says he took inspiration from “high-concept comedies” of the 1990s, such as Groundhog Day and Being John Malkovich.  “You’ve got characters going through these extreme, surreal crises, but it’s still entertaining,” says the director. 

Abrahams, who was Bafta-nominated for his 2011 short Connect,  wrote Lady with his partner Miranda Campbell Bowling. Made for less than £1m, the film was produced by MetFilm, which is also handling international sales and is distributing the title in the UK and Ireland next year.

Laurie Kynaston and Juliet Cowan also star.

Abrahams talks to Screen about park walks with Clifford, morning shoots and what he has learnt from making his first feature.

Where did the initial seed of an idea come from?

I was lost down this YouTube rabbit hole and stumbled across the very first post of someone who was aspiring to be an influencer. It felt like every single decision they were making was completely off, but it was really charming because of this. There was just something about her, this person’s need to have an audience, to be seen, [but] to not know how to communicate to this audience that also didn’t exist.

There came this empathy and something I related to because I want to make stuff and put it out in the world too, and I want people to see it. How am I any different?

How did you find your producer, MetFilm?

I already had a very strong relationship with Anna [Mohr-Pietsch] and Stuart [le Maréchal] at Met. We had been in development on this other project, and there was a lot of trust. There was the feeling of us, the three of us, really wanting to make a film together, and this felt like the perfect thing to just go and make.

I had been working on another film for quite a long time. I’m so used to the quick turnarounds of commercials that it was frustrating trying to get that other film off the ground and it was expensive. With Lady, the idea was always to make it with a sense of urgency and determination. When I met with MetFilm in August 2023 , I told them I was going to be shooting it next year which I know is ridiculous to say but I needed to will it into existence.

How did you get Sian Clifford on board?

Sian is hilarious, and we’ve all seen her as Claire in Fleabag. There was no doubt in my mind that Sian would deliver one hell of a performance in this role. We met up and hit it off, creatively we were both speaking the same language and saw the same film. I knew going into this film that it would kind of live and die by the tone. Sian would need to set the tone for the whole movie.

We had no real rehearsal time but in the months before the shoot, we went on a lot of walks around Hyde Park and I spent a lot of time talking about the research, the backstory of the character and all the behavioural things.

The entire film takes place in, and is shot at, Somerleyton Hall in Suffolk. What made that location the right fit?

What was so important to me was that Isabella would be in the kind of stately home that [is] very colourful and rich in texture. As soon as we saw Somerleyton, we knew it would be fantastic. The Crown had filmed there.. We made it clear to [the owners] that the house would be a character in the film.

What was the most challenging aspect of the shoot?

We shot in November [2024] for 15 days, so it was making sure we got everything before the sun went down. I’m so used to working on commercials where you can just figure that stuff out later. On the second day of the shoot [for Lady], it started dawning on me that everyone was getting really tense. Because if the sun’s going down suddenly the story won’t make sense. You need to have a really good morning.

What have you learnt from making your first feature that you wish you knew going into it? 

I noticed in the edit you need more moments than you think you do to look to the soul of the character. So that the audience can project their own interpretations on to those access points. You need more time to look at the character and just see their vulnerabilities. I could have done with more of those.

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