Mara Voss on Quiet Stories, Creative Risk and Her Debut Feature

Writer-director Mara Voss discusses the making of her debut feature, After the Last Train, and explains why silence, collaboration and emotional honesty are at the centre of her storytelling.

For writer-director Mara Voss, the most memorable stories are often found in the moments people overlook. Her debut feature, After the Last Train, follows two estranged sisters who return to their coastal hometown after the death of their father. Rather than relying on dramatic revelations, the film explores grief through unfinished conversations, familiar places and the small routines that remain after someone is gone.

“I wanted the film to feel intimate rather than sentimental,” Voss explains. “Grief can be loud, but it can also appear in ordinary moments—making coffee, opening a cupboard or hearing a song you had forgotten.”

Voss began developing the screenplay five years ago, initially writing it as a short film. As the characters became more complex, she realised their story needed more room. The finished feature retains the focused atmosphere of a short while allowing the sisters’ relationship to unfold gradually.

Filmed over twenty-two days with a small cast and crew, After the Last Train reflects Voss’s preference for collaborative, character-led filmmaking. She encouraged the actors to question dialogue, explore pauses and bring personal observations into rehearsals.

“Restrictions can be frustrating, but they can also make you more inventive,” she says. “We could not solve every problem with money, so we solved them through preparation and imagination.”

One of the film’s most important locations was an old railway station that had been closed for more than a decade.

Although After the Last Train is Voss’s first feature, she has spent more than a decade working across theatre, short films and television development. She believes that moving between different formats helped her understand the importance of structure without becoming restricted by it.

“In theatre, I learned to trust performers. In short films, I learned to remove anything unnecessary. Television taught me how to keep an audience curious,” she says. “Directing a feature required all three lessons.”

With the film preparing for its festival run, Voss is already developing her next project: a contemporary mystery set inside a touring theatre company. While the new story is larger in scale, she says it will continue exploring the themes that interest her most—identity, memory and the complicated ways people protect one another.

She also hopes the release of After the Last Train encourages emerging filmmakers to begin creating work before they feel completely ready.

“There is always a reason to delay,” she says. “You might want more experience, better equipment or a larger budget. Preparation matters, but at some point you have to accept uncertainty and make the film.”