Whitby short film Huggo starring Happy Valley's Siobhan Finneran explores grief and baby loss

“It was just this absolutely beautiful story,” says director Katie Harriman, 32, of Rachael’s script.

“She'd lost her bunny rabbit, which is why the bunny rabbit was at the centre of the story. And she was just trying to process her own grief, decided to write Huggo and obviously researched baby loss, and decided to turn it into a story about baby loss so that more people can really relate to it.

“During pre-production, when I first read the script, it really spoke to me because I was actually pregnant at the time. I’m very much about telling women's stories that we don't really talk about and that maybe need a space in film and in the arts, where people can kind of explore those topics.”

The film became a solace for Katie when she lost her own baby boy, Leo, in October 2021.

She says: “I actually found out at 18 weeks that we'd lost our son. It was absolutely devastating, obviously, it was one of those really bizarre things where it felt like art had become reality. And in a way, I felt like having Huggo as a project really helped me with my grief as well.

“There were so many families who reached out to me and said, ‘This has happened to me too’, or ‘It happened so early on that we’d not told anybody’ and you just don't realise, until it happens to you, how many people it does happen to, and so that was our driving force behind the film. Even though, originally it was Rachael's grief about her losing a pet, it ended up being something that so many of us really did relate to.”

The film follows April, who stacks shelves at a supermarket in Whitby with a baby carrier strapped to her chest. Inside sits Huggo, a giant toy bunny, as April tries to get her life back on track after a miscarriage.

The cast includes Bebe Cave (seen in Tale of Tales) as the lead, along with Siobhan Finneran (Happy Valley, Downton Abbey, The Stranger) as a priest and Jonny Green (White Lines, It’s a Sin).

The talent, says producer Amy Banks, was a “gift” to them, with the likes of Finneran currently a big screen presence after the final series of Sally Wainwright’s Happy Valley, in which she played Clare Cartwright.

“We really didn't think we were going to get her and she just loved the script,” says Amy. “She read it and she was like, ‘Yeah, absolutely’. We actually only shot with her for a day but she plays such an integral part in the film. She plays the priest of the church (filmed at St Mary’s), and she has this wonderful, almost kind of monologue conversation with April about dealing with grief and loss and how to come through it.”

She adds: “(Siobhan) was such a joy to work with and it was nice to see, in some respects, actors within the industry who are providing their time to help new emerging talent come through and be able to showcase and help them take the story that they love - and wouldn't necessarily be able to get to be seen in certain areas - and help them elevate that.”

The Whitby scenery, too, gave director of photography Aimee Bant plenty to work with when they shot in June last year.

“It's very lonely and it's very much a place where it's isolated from everywhere else,” says Katie, who lives in Howden.

"You have to go over the Moors to get to it, which is kind of in the middle of nowhere and kind of quite eerie. And that all very much added to the style of it.”

More than 100 people have helped the team raise over £5,000 to finance the film.

They have also set up a GoFundMe for ‘completion funds’ of £1,000, half of which will go to Aching Arms.

The charity donates “comfort bears” to hospitals and hospices, for midwives and nurses to offer to bereaved parents in their care.

In terms of style, they were inspired by the eccentricities of work such as Back to Life (2019) and End of the ******* World (2017), along with “Wes Anderson-esque symmetry”.

Films such as Inside Llewyn Davies (2013) and the lighting of La La Land (2016) have also provided inspiration, while the film will be underscored with a soft, 1980s/90s inspired soundtrack.

It is coming out through Fly Girl Films, a production company Katie set up from her flat in Goole in 2013 when she returned to the north from London.

There is not yet an official release date as they are looking at a potential run at film festivals initially.

But as part of it, bereaved parents can also have their baby’s name included on a special credit sequence at the end of the film.

Amy, 29, of York, says: “We’re giving a lot of families and a lot of parents the opportunity to have their child’s name immortalised, in some respect, in some sort of art.

"We’re acknowledging their loss but also acknowledging that this could have been a person, and was a person to many, just to give them the chance to allow them to be part of the film.”

Bereaved parents who would like their baby’s name in the credit sequence are asked to email [email protected] or write their baby’s name at the Huggo fundraising page: gofund.me/cdb3f8a3