“So much of our lives are spent attempting to communicate, trying to convey something and share with others,” says Los Angeles-based director, producer and writer Haroula Rose. Her short film As They Slept, written by Nicolaia Rips, focuses on the relationship between two young women as they try to reignite their childhood friendship after moving to different colleges. 

Stranger Things actor Maya Hawke and This Is Us star Rachel Hilson play Margaret and Eleanor, two odd-couple friends who have rented out a room on Airbnb as a launchpad for a weekend of birthday revelry. Whimsical moments like drinking from tampon flasks and sneaking past their sleeping hosts to get to the bathroom are coupled with fractious conversations about love and life.

“Oftentimes it is what is not being said between people that leaves a deeper mark,” says the director, whose film was part of the Champs-Élysées Film Festival in June. “I wanted to make something about friendship with a group of young women at a moment where they are trying to figure out who they are, both individually and in relation to one another.

“There might be subtext that someone can’t articulate, even to herself, but it can be expressed in other ways through conflict, humor and movement. Ultimately, this is a story about two people who love each other but who are also growing up. However, the simplest moments together are what can get us through a hard time.”