Symbols of love

Artistic Statement:

Why does Sweetheart: Angel of the Moor weave folklore into a true story? Because memory isn’t only written in court records, it lingers on landscapes, rituals, and whispers. Across cultures, when we face loss, we turn to our faith, to place, to flowers, and to symbols of love , seeking ways to carry grief and keep memory alive.

From the humble poppy left after battlefields, to sprigs of forget-me-nots pressed into mourning jewellery, to the broom plant once worn by the Plantagenets as protection from evil, history is full of such symbols. They remind us that remembrance has always needed something visible — a flower, a token, a prayer, a place — to hold what words cannot.

The film is grounded in the true story of Mary-Jane Skaife, a young woman murdered on Stumps Lane, Darley, in 1858. Her final walk, her family life, her devotion to chapel, and her treatment in court are drawn directly from historical records.

Alongside this factual foundation, the film threads in Yorkshire folklore, whispers on the moor, the flicker of fairies, the growl of the Barghest. These elements are not intended to turn Mary-Jane into myth, but to reflect how landscapes hold memory, how stories of the supernatural echo human loss, and how communities have always explained trauma through tale, faith, and symbol.

Nidd Gorge

For example, the flowers that still appear at the Darley village sign are a living echo of remembrance, not legend, but memory marked in ritual. Similarly, the whisper of “almost home” carried on the wind is a cinematic gesture towards her nearness to safety, a truth made haunting by its absence.

On Hartwith Moor, the sprigs of white heather — once a symbol of peace and purity — stand as another reminder: a fragile bloom in a harsh landscape, echoing the life of a young woman almost home, but never returned.

Mary-Jane remains at the centre as a real woman, with a voice, a family, and a faith — and a life cut short. The folklore and faith are there to frame her absence — not to define her, but to remind us that even when history forgets, the land remembers, and our faith remembers too.

This balance of truth, folklore, faith, and habitual remembrance lies at the heart of our storytelling, making Sweetheart both historic and ritually grounded.