Rob Munday

A place overflowing with hormones, emotions and confusion, high school isn’t usually somewhere we long to revisit. For filmmaker Kyle Sims, however, the desire to return to its “labyrinth-like classrooms and corridors” became the starting point for Galapagos, a quietly unnerving short centred on a teacher’s missing pet rabbit and the unsettling power dynamic she shares with one of her students.

A character-driven, performance-led film, Galapagos places extraordinary trust in its two central actors – Catherine Curtin as Mrs. Wilson and Trace Talbot as Jay – neither of whom speaks a single line of dialogue throughout the short. Instead, Sims constructs the relationship through eye contact and physical proximity, explaining that his aim was to “highlight an abnormal relationship between teacher and student without forcing them to confront each other verbally.” It’s a creative decision that asks the audience to read between the lines, making every interaction feel loaded with unspoken meaning.

Catherine Curtin stars as a school teacher with a strong bond for her class rabbit.

While events initially unfold in a relatively conventional fashion, Galapagos gradually slips into stranger territory. Mrs. Wilson’s search for her beloved rabbit ultimately leads not to the reunion she hopes for, but to an exchange that fundamentally alters the balance between teacher and student. What begins as an unbalanced institutional relationship evolves into something far more primal, as the teacher’s perceived innocence collides with the student’s quiet cunning.

As Sims explains, “The theory was that the overall absence of dialogue would allow the characters to transcend the boundaries of their social relationship, and enable them to manifest a deep yet sinister dynamic that words would only puncture.” It’s an idea the film executes with remarkable confidence. By the time Mrs. Wilson’s restraint finally gives way and she reasserts her authority, the moment lands with a quiet force that leaves it reverberating long after that unforgettable closing scene has ended.