Cypriot filmmaker explores everyday loyalty in London café comedy

London, United Kingdom. LOYAL, a nine-minute comedy by Cypriot filmmaker Antonis Papamichael and Malaysian director Sara Chia Jewell, follows a woman whose decision to buy coffee from another café sparks an increasingly awkward chain of events.

A break from routine

The film centres on Arlo, who visits the same local café each morning. She knows the barista, Eleni, follows her usual routine and is collecting stamps towards a free coffee on her loyalty card.

When the café is busy and Arlo is late for work, she decides to get her coffee elsewhere. The problem is that Eleni sees her.

The decision sets off a chain of increasingly ridiculous events, turning an ordinary coffee run into a story about loyalty, community and the relationships built in familiar places.

An everyday setting

Papamichael said the idea came from an ordinary experience.

“We wanted to make a wholesome comedy and was inspired by just visiting a café in the area we filmed in,” he said.

The café became the natural centre of the story, as a place where people may stop on their way to work, meet friends or see the same faces each day.

“A café is a part of most people’s routines,” Papamichael said.

Community in London

The film treats Arlo’s decision to try another café as though it were a serious betrayal, despite her having done nothing wrong.

The directors used that premise to build a comedy around the small loyalties of everyday life. For Papamichael, who is from Cyprus, the café also offered a way to explore the Cypriot community in London.