The Bite Magazine - Autumn/Winter 2025 - Issue 38

Highway Giedre Jackyte reveals the essence of director Letitia Wright’s debut short film, a coming-of-age fantasy drama set against the ongoing knife crime crisis in London. bitefilmreview to the M oon L etitia Wright's directorial debut, Highway to the Moon, is a rare short film that feels both tender and devastating. It doesn’t rush to explain itself, yet from the very first frame, its emotional truth is unmistakable. The film is inspired by the real-life loss of a friend's family member to knife crime, and you can feel that per- sonal weight in the way Wright shapes the story not through shock, but through sensitivity. Instead of recreating the violence or focusing too much on the event itself, Wright turns her camera towards what comes after the unthinkable. The story follows a young man adrift in the realm be- tween life and death following his sudden killing, a liminal space where time seems suspended, and reality feels slightly out of reach. The narrative isn’t linear; it unfolds more like a state of mind, where memory, imagination, and raw emotion blur together. Visually, the film mirrors that disorientation. Its cinematography is soft and hushed, with dusky tones and still moments that evoke a sense of floating between worlds. Nothing is hurried, nothing forced. The style reflects slow, une- ven, difficult-to-articulate, and unpredictable grief. Performances from Aboulaye Touray and Kenyah Sandy (of Small Axe) echo this rhythm and anchor the film with quiet intensity. At the same time, Treva Etienne provides a grounding presence, tethering the story to reality even as the characters drift away from it. What makes Highway to the Moon particular- ly affecting is its refusal to reduce knife crime to statistics or shock tactics. Wright chooses honesty over sensationalism, focusing instead on the ripple effects of violence, how it reshapes those left behind, how silence can feel safer than words, and how grief resists neat timelines. The film never shouts its message, but it lands with Short Film