Film

The Confession

Name: The Confession
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Released: 2010
Cast: Lewis Howlett, Joe Eales, James Simmons, Emma Atkins, Peter John Mossford

Other titles called The Confession: the 1970 film, the 1999 film.

Coming-of-age
Very dark

A taut 26-minute drama about two boys whose harmless prank spirals into something neither of them anticipated. Shot with the precision of a moral fable, it moves quickly from childhood anxiety into genuine darkness. For anyone who's ever felt the weight of consequence arrive faster than expected, or who appreciates short film at its most economical.

TMDb rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like small, precise stories where a childhood misstep and a churchyard setting slowly tighten into something you can't shake, told with patience.

Skip it if you want a full-length feature with room to breathe, since this is a half-hour piece that packs its drama into a very short stretch of time.

What it asks of you: Half an hour of patient, watchful pacing, where the stillness of a rural parish does much of the work and every small gesture carries weight.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Kes1970

Ken Loach's masterpiece about a boy and a hawk captures the same fierce tenderness toward childhood and the same eye for how small moments crack open into tragedy. It's British social realism at its most humane.

But It's slow by modern standards and asks you to sit with discomfort rather than resolve it quickly.

This Is England2007

Shane Meadows understands how friendship and belonging can tip into something darker. His film has the same urgent momentum and the same refusal to let anyone off the hook, including the audience.

But It's brutal about racism and violence in ways that demand emotional stamina.

Win It All2017

A compact, character-driven story about choices that scatter like dominoes. It moves with purpose and never wastes a frame. You'll see how quickly good intentions collapse.

But It's about adult stakes, so the emotional register is different, though the structure echoes.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Confession

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind2004

Both use a single event (or its undoing) to ask what it means to live with what we've done. The prank and the memory-wipe are both attempts to escape consequence that fail—and that failure is the whole story.

Like your film, it's about the impossibility of undoing what you've done. Charlie Kaufman understands that memory and consequence are inextricable. It's inventive, touching, and structurally brilliant—the form itself carries the meaning.

But It's science fiction and quite long (108 minutes). The narrative loops in ways that can feel precious or emotionally exhausting on first watch.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind poster

Four Lions2010

Chris Morris makes a film about extremism that is funny, horrifying, and bracingly honest about how ordinary catastrophe can seem to ordinary people. It has real moral clarity.

But The humour will alienate people who think the subject shouldn't be funny. It's also quite English in its sensibility.

A Prophet2009

A meticulous study of corruption and survival. Every choice a character makes has weight. The film earns its tension through character rather than manipulation.

But It's set in a French prison and is quite long—two and a half hours to your 26 minutes, so the pace is different.

The Florida Project2017

Sean Baker follows children living in poverty with such tenderness and clarity. It captures the same sense of how childhood's small dramas live next to adult catastrophe.

But It's slow and requires patience with ambiguity. There's no redemptive arc, which some find frustrating.

12:08 East of Bucharest2006

A Romanian comedy that's also a moral inquiry. It's economical, clever, and deeply interested in how people justify themselves. Darkly funny throughout.

But It's very dry and requires you to read subtitles. The humour is observational rather than cathartic.

The Selfish Giant2013

Clio Barnard's film about two boys in Bradford has the same unflinching eye for how friendship can become complicity. It's devastating and utterly unsentimental.

But It's bleak. There's no comfort in it, and some viewers need catharsis.

Winter Light1963

Bergman strips faith and doubt down to their skeleton. It's short, austere, and deeply concerned with what happens when belief fails us—which is the heart of your film too.

But It's glacially slow, shot in black and white, and interested in metaphysics rather than plot. Bergman is not for everyone.

Come and See1985

Both films understand that a single moment—a prank, a decision to join the partisans—can erase childhood forever. Both refuse to soften that knowledge. Both are short or economical in their storytelling despite the weight they carry.

Elem Klimov's film about a boy's initiation into war is the most harrowing portrait of how innocence fractures ever committed to film. It's 142 minutes of devastation, but it earns every second. A masterpiece.

But It is genuinely difficult to watch. People have walked out. It's about atrocity and uses sound and image to destroy you. You need to be ready for it.