Bottleneck, the directorial debut of Hannah Judah, is a black comedy about how, in modern society, it is often the children who hold the power in a family situation.
Jeff, an incompetent stepfather embarks upon a school run as a labour of love, and finds himself victim to an unexpected turn of events.
The stress of being confined to a hot car, stuck in a bottleneck with two girls’ and their incessant whining is Jeff’s vision of absolute hell.
The relentless Claire and Mona grate away at Jeff, who, new to the joys of parenthood, is unaccustomed to their abuse and tries to swallow his anger as best as he can. The girls eventually overstep the mark, resulting in fit of unbridled torrent of abuse from Jeff.
Older sister Claire, spurned by her teenage hormones and hatred for Jeff decides to launch a very different kind of attack on Jeff and hatches a sinister, if not creative plot to avenge him and starts scribbling away in her school exercise book.
Using her powers of manipulation, Claire holds a series of signs up the window, managing to convince the driver of a neighboring car that her and her sister are kidnap victims in need of urgent help.
Naive, unsuspecting Martin doesn’t know what to believe at first, until he claps eyes on the irate Jeff, who glares at him, still livid at the girls.
After struggling with his conscience, Martin panicks and calls the police, suspecting the worst and fearing for the girls.
Just as the traffic has eased up and Jeff is nearing home; chaos ensues as the police come hot on his tail. Who has really been taken for a ride on this journey?