King’s College Film Society co-founder Carl Laudan’s first mainstream feature is an examination of violence and its impact through a cycle of characters inhabiting a women’s transition house. Examining a world that deftly balances despair with surrealism, Laudan—and his writer Katherine Schlemmer—build up a startling portrait of characters jolted out of the mainstream. Avoiding much of the heavy-duty drama associated with the subject, Sheltered Life instead focuses on three teenagers who attempt to navigate an unstable world. While violence does eventually intrude on this strange new and very temporary landscape, Laudan catches flashes of humour, friendship and adolescent joy amidst the absurdities of inhabiting a house full of strangers and victims. A powerful debut, Sheltered Life echoes the work of American director David Gordon Green while establishing its own original cinematic voice.