The film Satisfaction, directed by Alex Burunova and starring Emma Laird, follows Lola, a talented composer whose impulsive connection with Philip at a social gathering leads to a sunlit escape to the Greek islands. The narrative shifts when Lola meets Elena on a nudist beach, an encounter that acts as a catalyst for confronting long-buried memories and unresolved feelings. Burunova explains that shaping this material for the screen allowed her to give a coherent form to a personal experience that had lingered for years.
Burunova insists that cinema offers a particular type of resolution that everyday life rarely supplies. While reality often leaves questions open-ended, the craft of filmmaking lets a creator arrange events with a defined arc: introduction, escalation and catharsis. In doing so she aimed for more than narrative neatness; the goal was to translate private pain into public art that might also function as a vehicle for understanding and recovery.
From a theatre moment to a film about speaking up
Burunova traces the project’s origin to a sudden, unexpected revelation during a theatre rehearsal when an improvised backstory made her recognise an element of her own life. That instant, she says, stripped away the fiction she had been hiding behind and revealed the need to reclaim her voice. This conversion of a private memory into a scripted work became, for her, an act of empowerment: turning the stuckness of silence into an opportunity for expression and agency.
Central to the film is the idea that women are often conditioned to be quiet, a cultural pattern Burunova wanted to confront. By placing a queer woman at the centre of a story about recovery rather than spectacle, Satisfaction aims to normalise the complexity of desire and pain. The film refuses to reduce its characters to mere coming-out narratives; instead, it explores how sexuality intersects with art, trauma and growth.
Queerness as ongoing discovery
Working on the film prompted Burunova to reassess her own sense of identity. She echoes a view she first heard years ago: sexual identity is not simply a point on a static line but a progression across time. For her the creative process underscored that queerness can be a shifting, lifelong exploration rather than a permanent label to defend. Trauma, she notes, can freeze that journey; healing, conversely, opens it back up.
This stance aligns with a broader conversation about representation: the director wants viewers to understand fluidity as legitimate evolution, not confusion. Through Lola’s encounters and interior reckonings, Satisfaction presents queerness as a facet of human identity that can change in tone and focus as life unfolds, emphasising that recovery often unlocks new possibilities for self-understanding.
BFI Flare, the state of queer cinema and cinematic influences
The film will screen at the 40th BFI Flare festival, which takes place 18 – 29 March at BFI Southbank, with Satisfaction premiering on 22 March. Burunova speaks about festivals like Flare as essential spaces: they provide community, context and an audience willing to take risks. Visibility alone is insufficient; she argues, platforms that nurture emerging voices are critical to ensuring a diverse range of queer stories continues to be told.
Burunova cites Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire as formative for her understanding of how lesbian intimacy can be rendered with both subtlety and cinematic ambition. That film, she says, demonstrated that queer love stories deserve scale and rigorous craft. Asked which cinematic ancestor she’d invite to sit beside her during a screening, she chooses Pedro Almodóvar for his exuberance and fearless approach to queer themes.
The urgency of creating now
In 2026 Burunova highlights an alarming shift: markets and distributors in some regions are reducing appetite for queer work, and certain voices are increasingly marginalised. That climate makes the act of producing queer cinema an intentional form of resistance. Each film released today stakes a claim against cultural erasure, she suggests, and festivals that support that work amplify those claims.
What she hopes audiences will take away
Above all, Burunova hopes Satisfaction will foster empathy and recognition. If a viewer sees themselves reflected in Lola’s uncertainty and healing, the film will have met a core objective. Celebrating queer stories, she emphasises, is not about presenting flawless lives; it is about honouring nuance, courage, and the messy work of becoming.
For more information on the full BFI Flare programme and tickets, the festival website lists details for screenings and events. Burunova’s film joins a lineup that marks four decades of queer cinema at BFI, a milestone she views as both a celebration and a call to continue creating despite headwinds. The premiere of Satisfaction on 22 March is one moment in a longer conversation about art, identity and the power of storytelling.