Former Thirteenth Doctor Jodie Whittaker plunges into a technological maze in desperate search of her son in the new short drama film Capture
Jodie Whittaker’s first post-Doctor Who project has arrived. She stars in the short film Capture as a mother who finds herself navigating a modern Kafkaesque labyrinth of rules and technology as she searches for her missing son. The Financial Times has created the new drama to draw attention to issues of child protection online. It sees Whittaker’s character come home to discover her son has disappeared into the bowels of a mysterious, all powerful, corporation. The police considering it a private matter between the family and the company. So with her ineffectual husband (Paul Ready) by her side, she heads to the its headquarters. But what awaits her there are even more layers of doubletalk and obfuscation from an organization looking for ‘meaningful engagements’ at any cost.
At just under fifteen minutes to make its point, Capture isn’t exactly subtle. But Whittaker grounds it with perfectly realised shades of frustration, fear, and guilt. After all, how much of what’s happening is the fault of corporate cynicism, and how much the fault of hands off parenting? The short film is also deliberately short on answers. It presents the dilemmas of modern parenting in the online age, while acknowledging there are no easy solutions.
Capture is free to watch on the Financial Times YouTube channel. It’s written by Nina Segal, who has previously written for Hanna and Leave to Remain on television. In keeping with Capture’s themes, she’s also co-author of the play AI alongside a literal chatbot designed to create realistic sounding human dialogue. Juliet Riddell directs the new film. Her previous work includes the short Covid-19 drama People You May Know starring Doctor Who’s Arthur Darvill and frequent Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat collaborator Lydia West.
