Ever thought you might be a bit of a hag? Anna Ginsburg’s new short film is for you

In the summer of 2021, Anna Ginsburg chased the break-up with her boyfriend, not with a tequila shot, but her close friends baby shower, the very next day. It was after this unfortunate clash that milestones and ticking clocks began to consume the director, suddenly, “my best friends, who had been in the trenches of single life with me for our 20s, felt lost to me,” Anna says. This misalignment – of the rug being pulled from beneath her whilst her friends enjoyed happy relationships, children, and mortgages – left her spinning out, and unsure of who she really was. Anna says: “Words invaded my mind— witch, spinster, crone, old made— I no longer felt like myself. I was a hag.”

It’s association a fair few of us will know all too well. But historical descriptions of hags have always been less than savoury, universally grappled with in tales like the Hansel and Gretel and Baba Yaga. While we can now be thankful not to be accused of being cahoots with the devil, the word demonstrates that while men are viewed to increase in value with age (into the distinguished silver fox), women are devalued by society with age. Now comes Anna’s new short, the BFI-backed short film Hag, which grapples with hag-life and stars the voice of Charlotte Ritchie (Ghosts, Feel Good, Fresh Meat).

The gendered restriction of hag-adjacent associations is something Anna sees as bleeding into the animation industry. Her film is situated as “an intentional reaction against the traditional tropes of female character design in animation – prioritising divine facial proportions, stick thin physics, and oversized breasts”. Hag also goes against the commercial film grain, coloured in neon yellow, boggy greens and purples, chosen to be purposefully jarring. It was made with a crew of 120 including cleaning and colouring by a 55-person team, it’s co-written with Miranda Latimer and produced by Strange Beast’s Becky Perryman.

There’s something magical in the fact that this film saw completion. Its aesthetic is contrary to what’s considered profit-gathering material and this script could be collecting dust in an alternate world. It pops into the world bold, abrasive and monstrously relatable – seeing support for the film could cure any cinephile of their industry cynicism. Becky says: “From the very beginning, we were all women in our early 30s working together to bring this narrative to life, which made the process feel incredibly personal and connected.”

It’s clear to see that the animation was a labour of love. It’s made using traditional 2D techniques to bring life to what Anna calls The Hagiverse; London’s Peckham is transformed into something mythical and fantastical. Anna says: “Whilst magical realism serves to heighten the drama and humour of the story, it is also a tool to cope with the bizarreness and intensity of the real world.” Anna’s inspirations pull from literary examples of women put down and underestimated: Sleeping Beauty’s Maleficent, a single woman ostracised, and Medusa, whose sexual trauma is overshadowed by her monstrous appearance. These stories are everywhere, both fictional and within us all. She continues, “Many of these female characters were feared and unwanted. However, magic and freedom existed at the edges and margins of those stories and society in general.”

Hag’s tale of oppressive gender dynamics and complex heroines is defined by it’s delicate balance between the visually absurd and mundane. Such a story wouldn’t be possible without Fleabag, Girls and Sex and the City, according to Anna. They gave her solace where there was chaos, and Anna hopes Hag does the same for its audience. “I hope audiences will relate to Hag and find it hilarious and accessible whether they are animation fans or not,” says Anna. “As with all my work, I hope it makes people feel less alone.”