The Lightning Rod is a claustrophobic and tense story about Irina, who flees domestic abuse to find refuge with her grandmother. As a storm outside intensifies, the different generations crammed into one small space disagree about the future of Irina’s life. But the dark will soon bring more than disagreement.

While utilising genre tropes to their fullest to create an unparalleled atmosphere, the film is also a raw and evocative examination of abuse and the terror it brings. Already impressing audiences across the world, including in Cannes, where the film premiered as part of La Cinef in 2025, the short will be showing at the 2026 edition of Karlovy Vary as part of EFP’s Future Frames.

Cineuropa talked to the director of the film, Finnish-born Helmi Donner, who studied at Aalto University in Finland, to get the low-down on how she mixed classic genre trappings with a timely and important examination of abuse and trauma.

Cineuropa: What was the spark for The Lighting Rod?
Helmi Donner: I wanted to tell a story about intimate partner violence and manipulation, but to put the focus on the tension between two women who are unable to speak about it and face each other as vulnerable beings. I’m very fascinated by this intergenerational mirroring and the idea that seeing oneself in someone else can provoke aggression and shame, but can also be a pathway towards recognition and freedom.

What made you decide to take a more genre-based approach when making the film?
I felt like playing with genre allowed me to look at the theme through an associative and non-exploitative gaze. I wanted to convey an experience that would contain the magical and the mundane because that reflects how I see life. It’s very important for me to feel like I am being honest in my filmmaking, and I hope the film can speak to people who need to see this kind of story for one reason or another. Lucrecia Martel’s way of pairing images and sounds has been very inspiring for me.

It’s a very sparse film, utilising – almost – one location and creating a claustrophobic tension. What are the benefits and drawbacks of filming in such a relatively small space in terms of practicality and aesthetics?
It was crucial for us to find the perfect house to film in, and the one we had was truly a character in itself (as well as also being almost too small to work in). I love it when a place creates its own rules, especially in a film like this – every room and corner has its meaning, and one has to be very intentional with the way the characters and the camera use the space. For me, those kinds of limitations feel exciting; I think they push me to be more precise and know my priorities.

Can you expand on the casting for the film?
I knew both of the leading women from school projects before, and I had them in mind already when writing. Casting is one of my absolute favourite things in directing; I love actors, and I get so inspired by their ability to express so much in small gestures and to fill a space or a frame with energy. Casting the partner character was also really interesting because I needed to focus on his voice and how he would use it to push and pull the other person. In all cases, I was looking for an interplay of aggression and tenderness.

Do you have any ideas for the project that will follow The Lightning Rod?
I am currently working on a feature-length screenplay that explores some themes similar to this short, but in quite a different setting. What really interests me at the moment is the inevitable, quite messy dependence between us as people.