Lady (2025) Film Review: Finding Your Artistic Voice

Sian Clifford is a tour de force in Lady, Samuel Abraham’s mockumentary satire about a filmmaker and subject finding their artistic voices together.

The idea is that the camera will follow her around as she embarks on an “epic journey” of artistic discovery, culminating in her winning Stately Stars. But Sam finds himself quickly perturbed by her narcissistic and overbearing personality, not helped by the fact that she is entering her own talent show meant for disadvantaged kids.

The tipping point seems to come when he finds out he is here under false pretences, and that Netflix haven’t even heard of Lady Isabella (“yet”). Then her hands turn invisible. What’s more, this invisibility is slowly spreading all over her body. This convinces Sam to stay, thinking there may be something here, as well as to further his own stagnant career. However, as Isabella works on her performance art/dance act, an unexpected bond starts to form between the pair.

Lady marks the feature debut for Samuel Abrahams, who was nominated for a BAFTA in 2010 for his short Connect. Working off a script he co-wrote with his partner Miranda Campbell Bowling, Abrahams’ film is a mockumentary satire based on the observational docs where he got his start, with a distant camera that secretly listens to conversations. He then matches it up with a magical realist gimmick that comes out of nowhere, but fits perfectly with the idea of the eccentric Lady Isabella losing her sense of self (literally) and trying to find it through artistry and creativity.

Sian Clifford is a tour de force here, immediately attention-grabbing as the self-absorbed Isabella. Aided by her character’s distinctive and colourful outfits (shout out to costume designer Terri Higgins), Clifford inhabits the role completely and with great humour but also depth and tragedy. Sure, Isabella is definitely entitled and erratic. Yet there is a fragility and loneliness that Abrahams and Campbell Bowling’s script burrows into. That is reflected in Isabella’s estate (Somerleyton Hall in Suffolk, which fans of The Crown might recognise), which can feel eerily cavernous with her husband and son away, though there is more to that than initial appearances. As Lady will argue, perhaps Isabella is a deeply misunderstood figure.

Although Juliet Cowan has moments as housekeeper Becky, Lady is effectively a two-person show. The other is an impressive Laurie Kynaston, playing a filmmaker named Sam who is constantly having to say he was only BAFTA-nominated. This is clearly a self-deprecating character from Abrahams, who paints this Sam as someone who might be willing to sneer at what he sees. Yet despite his protestations, Sam becomes at least part of the main story here, with his stage fright and own insecurities that have led to fewer projects. Turns out this is the right time for him to find his creative self too.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Abrahams compared his film to Groundhog Day and Being John Malkovich, both comedies from the 1990s that had a surreal hook used for a human journey at their cores. That intention plainly comes across by the end of Lady, though that doesn’t stop it from being a biting look at documentary filmmakers’ relationships with their subjects and the advantages that might be taken in the process. Add the talk of commissioners and Netflix, and there may even be a comment on how the TV industry and audiences view these projects about people like Isabella.

Lady certainly makes some odd choices and can get a little too bizarre for its own good at times. It is also unpredictable, unique, hilarious (thanks in large part to Clifford) and mostly successful with its heartfelt moments. It is a story about human connections, identity and feeling seen. And at the end of it, you have both subject and documentarian managing to find their artistic voices.

Lady (2025) will be screened at the BFI London Film Festival on 16-19 October, 2025.