Ali Cook’s The Pearl Comb is an arresting, atmospheric short film that transcends genre boundaries, part gothic mystery, part historical drama, and wholly cinematic poetry. Set in 1893 England, it tells the story of a fisherman’s wife who performs an impossible act, curing a man of tuberculosis. What unfolds is a spellbinding battle between science and the supernatural, gender and power, truth and belief.
Visually, the film is a triumph. Cook, both writer and director, crafts a world bathed in mist and melancholy, every frame a painting that evokes the eerie beauty of a 19th-century ghost story. The cinematography, which has already garnered festival acclaim, captures both the intimacy of grief and the grandeur of revelation, while the special effects remain grounded and “classy,” to borrow Timothy Spall’s fitting praise: “Atmospheric, intriguing, very nicely shot, classy special effects, nicely paced and very well performed.”
At its heart, The Pearl Comb is a meditation on resilience and rebellion. Drawing inspiration from the real-life Edinburgh Seven, the first women to study medicine in the UK, Cook explores how women’s voices were dismissed, their talents confined, and their knowledge feared. Beatie Edney brings warmth and quiet authority to the role of the healer, while Clara Paget and Simon Armstrong offer nuanced turns that deepen the film’s emotional core. Cook himself appears with the restraint of a storyteller confident in his material.
It’s no surprise that The Pearl Comb has already qualified for the 2026 Academy Awards® and swept through over 50 festival wins, including the prestigious Méliès d’Argent at Grossmann and top honors at SCAD Savannah, Rhode Island, and Cleveland. Each accolade feels earned; this is a short film that lingers, both intellectually and emotionally.
Like his BAFTA-longlisted The Cunning Man, Cook’s latest work confirms him as one of the UK’s most distinctive short-form filmmakers, one who blends folklore with moral inquiry, magic with realism. His command of story is, as producer Joanna Laurie notes, “ambitious, smart, scary, dramatic, funny, and above all, expertly crafted.”
The Pearl Comb doesn’t just tell the story of a woman defying convention, it becomes a cinematic act of defiance itself, a reminder that beauty and power often bloom in the places the world least expects them. With its haunting score, meticulous costume design, and a message that resonates beyond its period setting, The Pearl Comb is a must-watch, a mystical medical miracle of a film.
