Duane Hopkins

Twelfth Man belongs to Short Plays, a Daniel Gruener project commemorating the 2014 World Cup.

Football seen through the eyes of some of the best directors of the world.

Tim has no job, but Tim ‘works’, selling stolen goods... In the face of mounting internal and external pressure, how far will he go to keep his head above water and protect those he loves?

Teenager Jade is pregnant. Her relationship with the father is complicated.

Gails agoraphobia keeps her inside where she escapes into romance novels. She shares a house with her Nan, recently back from the hospital. Gradually, they both try to reach out to each other to break their isolation. Rob plunges further into his addiction as a way of numbing his heartbreak over the death of his girlfriend. In his stupor, he dreams of embracing her again. Mr & Mrs Gladwin are going through a shift in their 60 year relationship. Years of resentment and unspoken truths have built a barrier between them that Mrs Gladwin, in her abiding love, tries to erode in little gestures.

In a small rural village, a boy and girl have a fight and each storm off their separate ways. The day passes and the boy realises that he shouldn't have a made a big deal out of the argument and tries to get in contact with his girlfriend. He takes his bike and sets out to try and find her before the end of the day.

An elegant, abstracted expression of provincial life in which ordinary everyday details become frozen and magnified as its young protagonists find themselves implicated in a moment of sheer madness.