"Snake"

6 January 2026

30s

Taking aim at abusers.

A reminder from the Home Office that Christmas is a time when domestic abuse in all its forms is often amplified by enforced proximity and seasonal socialising. A snake is used to represent toxic masculinity as a young woman tried to escape the clutches of a partner using coercive control to maintain a grip on her life.

The metaphor is slightly heavy-handed but by concentrating on the distress of the protagonist and making the snake almost incidental, director Emma Branderhorst skilfully lands this important message and by aiming it, to some extent, at the perpetrators of the abuse, provides the possibility of self-reflection.

UK

Government Departments