Image credits: Perfect Circle Films.
Alex Burunova likes to think of films like food. People enjoy different things and different flavours. For the Los Angeles-based University of Southern California Cinematic Arts alumni, she explains: “I like foods and films that make me think. I like them to make me question my own experiences, and leave space for me to process them.”
Naturally, the director applied this sensibility to her first feature-length film, Satisfaction. And, although our interview is confined to the four corners of a Zoom screen, Burunova’s eclectic disposition emanates through. Her passion is palpable, even here in Scotland, interleaved in her loose waves and sunny disposition.
She has a lot to say. One thing Burunova won’t do is bite her tongue.
Red carpet at Glasgow Film Festival 2026. Image credit: Amy Muir/GFF26.
About Satisfaction
Satisfaction, led by breakout star Emma Laird, had its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival March 7th and 8th. It may not be an easy film to stomach, but it’s an important one.
Burunova’s stylish debut follows British composer Lola and her partner Philip (Fionn Whitehead, Dunkirk). When the two take a trip to the lonely Greek Isles, tensions boil, and their tumultuous relationship is put to the test. Laird’s Lola flickers in and out of herself, wild and esoteric, then scrubbed-out and vacant; empty and pale, with eyes like sheets of thin ice. Philip’s at once sweet and unassuming demeanour betrays, ultimately, a more sinister persuasion. The relationship is unsettling, yet ambiguous. The slow, creeping runtime edges the question: why?
Dipped in clear blues, sprayed in salt and something darker, Satisfaction ebbs and flows, poised in its self-mythology.
Drawing on her own “life-altering event,” Alex Burunova wrote the film over the span of eight years. The psychological drama splits past and present timelines, reflecting the emotionally difficult time it took to stitch the script together. Trauma’s non-linearity is crucial to its temporal geometry. The fractures in their relationship are, at a turning point. The camera lingers on the couple for a lengthy time. It is abrupt and potentially very upsetting to many viewers, but the lens does not shy away from the dark subject matter. It startles. This startling quality, Satisfaction upholds, is the core. The audience is shaken into reality. Philip is, by all accounts, one of the good ones. Until he’s not.
Who Is Emma Laird?
Emma Laird (born September 8. 1998) is a Scottish-born English actress. She broke out as Iris in the Paramount+ series Mayor of Kingstown (2021-2024). Since then, Laird has taken her acting chops to the movies. Her recent filmography includes:
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)
Image credits:: Perfect Circle Films.
Laird, in Alex Burunova’s words, “is Lola.” In fact, she was so smitten with the model-turned-actress that Laird didn’t even require an audition to land the leading role. ”It was so clear,” she claims. Laird, like Burunova, has a distinctive way about her; translucent, wispy hair, and an elusive, alternative style that lends itself to Satisfaction’s indie-cool texture.
The iconic blonde piqued Burunova’s interest when the director watched her dailies for The Brutalist. Dailies, she explains, refers to unedited film or TV footage. They unveil, in her words, “the full capacities of an actor.” Seeing Laird at her most raw and vulnerable encouraged the director to seek her out.
At lunch, the two clicked straight away. Chatter and babbling bubbled into tears. Emma cried, then Alex cried; their alliance was set, and the director knew. “For this to work, it had to be a two-way street.” As much as people state that actors must be able to connect with their directors, the opposite is also true. “You, as a director, also need to have that intimacy.”
“Films are a beautiful fusion of true parts of ourselves.” Of course, she is referring to writers, directors, producers, and actors. Collaboration and genuine connection are key to an emotionally cohesive project.
“There are so many up-coming names and Alex had such a specific vision,” Thomaseto explains. So, that Burunova felt she could skip an often crucial part of the casting process, the audition itself, signalled something special.
Although the film was a “very cathartic experience,” she admits it required “a lot of personal reckoning–for how a traumatic event shaped me as an artist.”
While the events of Satisfaction are fictional, there were times when the writer-director felt the film world and the real world start to merge. Burunova confides that one time, during production, the emotional toll of bringing the story to screen became so intense that she had to step away from the set, nearly fainting.
Art and life, however difficult life may be, are inseparable for the director. Difficulty, producer Rafael Thomaseto suggests, is the point. “It makes you uncomfortable,’ he explains, “but does so in a way that explores the themes very well, in a deep capacity.”
“The number one theme is women’s agency to speak. For thousands of years, women have been indoctrinated into silence. That is the evil. By the time we start our periods, patriarchy has already made us feel we cannot use our voices.”
Alex Burunova on female socialisation, patriarchy and empowerment.
“I’ve always had so many opinions,” she adds, “but I didn’t realise how big a feminist I am, and how much I have to say, until this movie.”
When the director started doing the Q&As for Satisfaction’s various worldwide premieres, it came to her suddenly how much she had to speak out, and how much other women had to say back to her about their own experiences.
UK Premiere: Audience Reactions
Following Satisfaction’s premiere at Glasgow Film Theatre, audiences said:
The initial dream was for one million women to watch Satisfaction. However, surprisingly, Alex Burunova has found the movie resonating with a different audience. The writer-director recalls many, many middle-aged men, ages 30-50, crying after their screenings. “I didn’t really count on that,” she smiles. “We’re so used to this image of men being like stone. This movie is showing that’s not necessarily the case.”
On Letterboxd, the internet’s current cultural hub for film lovers, this sentiment echoed. Glasgow Film Festival goers said:
“The traumatic turning point incident is harrowing but presented so upfront it can’t be avoided, and it is angering and tragic how Lola is physically and mentally wrecked, stuck in a hollow trap until the presence of a particular woman helps to set in motion her eventual escape from it all.
An uncompromising but vital picture that eases you in before making the most empathetic of blows, leaving a sharp impression that cannot be shaken. No means no.”
“You can really tell how personal this movie was for the director and how much effort went into creating this impact. And while being heartbreaking at times still such a great cinema experience.”
“one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen, but also one of the most distressing.”
In a social climate that corners women into silence, Rafael Thomaseto describes the film as “an act of resistance.”
He holds that, for a project like this, which “depends on grassroots and word of mouth,” its mere existence strikes back. Satisfaction, ultimately, is an independent movie, directed, written, and led by a woman. Diversity is in decline, he claims, and it’s up to audiences to keep movies like this alive.
‘This film is for the people who want to resist.”
Producer rafael thomaseto on female-led indie films.
Every conversation is significant, he implies. The producer maintains that even if only two friends leave the movie, go for a coffee, then talk and reflect on their own experiences, that matters.
Satisfaction will show March 22nd at BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival and Manchester Film Festival, March 23rd.
