Filmmaker Statement

WHAT DO I OWE YOU? takes inspiration from a remarkable true story as a springboard to fiction. Sylvia is a complex protagonist in search of a better life for herself, free from the pressures of men and money. But even though that golden ticket falls in her lap, everywhere she turns, her circumstances worsen. Written and played to dark comedic effect, the film stretches Sylvia's moral dilemma – "what do I owe my friends and family when I strike it big?" – to her absolute limits. The story plays out as a series of escalating surprises, compressing our notion of real time into a barrage of conflict descending upon her one after the other after the other. Though the film's title is punctuated as a question, Sylvia may never have a second to ever provide the answer.