Oscar winner for 'Best Short Film' in 2005, Andrea Arnold's drama; 'Wasp' (2003) explores the struggle of a single mother attempting to balance her final attempt of a social life against her four young and starving children. Arnold's exploration of the shame and stigma placed on young mothers a powerful theme throughout the short, the character of Zoë shown to be an outcast--other young mothers looking down on her and seeing her as an unfit mother because she's alone, this emphasised in the opening scenes fight between Zoë and another mother who had 'disciplined' Zoë's child better than her (her idea if discipline being to hit the child).
Aiming to have the audience align with Zoë and sympathise with her, Arnold strategically uses a variety of tracking and point of view (POV) shots; this showing the audience Zoë and her families perspective as well as their struggles, encouraging alignment. Sound also plays a key role toward creating the isolating atmosphere. Like Zoë being treated as an outcast and placed on the outer skirts of this lower class society, focus is placed on small and discreet sounds that people typically wouldn't notice as their volume is raised about any background music and even speech sometimes; a fly buzzing on Zoë's kitchen window, a Ladybug moving through the shards or grass as the family travel to the pub for Zoë's date, etc...--Each of these being brought into the audiences focus linking back to Zoë's struggle being ignored by society.
Arnold ending the short with a building pace of quick cuts between Zoë and Dave making out in Dave's car and her children starving and scavenging for half eaten chips behind the pub bins shows the contrast between the life Zoë wants and the life she has. Zoë and Dave being in his car signifies Dave being her escape from her life of poverty and society disregarding and undermining her, meanwhile her children being positioned in the cold beside literal rubbish is a reminder of her inability to provide for them--a visual signifier of Zoë being the 'less than' that society deems her.