11, Bluebell Drive

Description

Daisy, a chubby teenager has consumed strawberries galore on a pick-your-own fruit farm. Overcome with stomach cramps, she squats in a field and is shocked to give birth to a baby girl and not a number 2. Frightened of her father, Daisy leaves her baby on a stranger’s doorstep.

Middle-aged Maureen, wakes up in the middle of the night. Outside is her strait-laced husband Morris, wearing her coat, wig and lipstick, holding a crying baby found after his moonlit walk. Flustered Morris has no idea where the baby came from and gives plausible reasons to why he’s dressed as a woman. Maureen couldn’t care less about the cross-dressing as there in front of them is everything she’s ever wanted – a baby.

To Maureen, this infant seems heaven sent when all other child making methods have failed. She convinces Morris to let her look after the baby until the morning before he calls the police - in case the mother returns, and in the hope, that Morris might agree to keep the foundling - which eventually he does. They name her Lilly.

Months later at Christmas, Daisy returns to Bluebell Drive where she left her baby - hired as a babysitter.

Biblical Connection

This 15-minute quirky comedy is inspired by Exodus 2:2-9 - The birth of Moses. The King of Egypt had decreed all Hebrew baby boys to be killed. When a Levite woman gives birth to a son, she places him in a papyrus basket onto the Nile. Similarly, Daisy gives birth and places her baby into her bike’s wicker basket, leaving it on a doorstep. Daisy’s tyrannical father would metaphorically kill her if he discovered she’d had a baby so represents the merciless King of Egypt. Pharaoh’s daughter bathing in the Nile, spots the basket and sends her maid to retrieve it. Morris represents the maid who brings the baby to Maureen aka Pharaoh’s daughter. This princess adopts Moses and unknowingly hires his birth mother to nurse him. This is echoed by Maureen and Morris keeping the foundling they find and months later unwittingly, hiring Daisy as a babysitter. Pharaoh’s daughter defies the order of slaying the boy and instead raises Moses as her own. Maureen and Morris also break the law by not informing the authorities of the baby they find. This film is about life changing events that challenge our moral compasses and lead us to take unexpected actions.