Teesh and Trude

Tiny triumphs in the lives of the two eponymous women, but a major triumph for three other women: the writer, producer and director. Starting with the most recalcitrant of material: cigarettes and beer, kitchens and toilet cisterns, tampons and hyperactive kids, unlucky women and untrustworthy men, the film-makers turn a literally kitchen-sink drama into a reaffirmation of the resurgence of the human spirit in the face of the most annoyingly trivial kinds of adversity. The film has been written with great care (although a good deal of quite realistic vulgarity) the editing is tight, the production design is witty, and the narrative arc comes to a delightful closure.