Ten years ago, director Daisy-May Hudson broke onto the scene with the hard-hitting documentary Half Way. Now, she makes her fiction feature debut with the equally hard-hitting Lollipop. Having its world premiere at the 2024 edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Lollipop would later receive a UK cinema release in June this year. More recently, Hudson’s film made its way to France for the Dinard British and Irish Film Festival.

The film centres on Molly (Posy Sterling), a young mother recently released from prison who struggles to gain custody of her children. Lollipop throws Molly into an uphill battle, with a social system designed to break people down rather than offer genuine help. It’s a system that Molly has to abide by, whether she agrees with it or not, in order to see her kids again.

Lollipop is an emotional ride, and in turn was an emotionally taxing experience for Sterling; something she was prepared for. “I did get up at 4am and do ice baths every single morning without fail”, explained Sterling. “That is what was required for me to reset. I was buzzing going into set.”

What makes Lollipop stand out is how female-centric the film is. A conscious decision made by Hudson, as she told us, “I noticed that when I was writing, there’s not really any negative characters, but the characters that could be perceived slightly more that way, I was writing them as men. Men have been perpetrators in my own story. But I didn’t want to do that, because I felt that through my own healing journey, I’ve realised that actually, there’s always pain on both sides. There’s always perspective on both sides.”

FILMHOUNDS also discussed the Dinard experience and audience reactions.

You can check out the full interview below:

Lollipop screened at the 2025 Dinard British & Irish Film Festival.

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