Remember me
She can sing, she can dance and she can act; meet Rina Lipa. A true multi-hyphenate in the making, the rising star is proving she’s far more than just Dua Lipa’s sister, with talent that clearly runs in the family. For her latest project, Lipa embarks on a deeply personal journey with her first short film, Weight of Ribbons.
Not only does Lipa star in the film, but she also wrote the screenplay, marking her debut as a writer. The project unfolds as an intimate character study, exploring growth and self-discovery through the tension between childhood dreams and the present self. Told through movement, costume and an internal monologue, the film offers a strikingly vulnerable viewing experience.
Drawing from her background in ballet, Lipa crafts a physical language rooted in emotion, using the body as a storytelling tool. Director Louis Melvyn brings a surrealist edge to the screen through his bold use of color, intentionally avoiding the often dated aesthetics associated with ballet. Instead, the film feels vivid and refreshingly contemporary.
That vision is further elevated through costumes styled by Edie Rose, who incorporates pieces from Miu Miu and Valentino, brands long associated with ballet and femininity. Corsets and shapewear nod to themes of restriction, while lace and color offer a fashion-forward addition. This is ballet stripped back and rebuilt.
An impressive first step into the world of filmmaking, Lipa commands the screen both in front of and behind the camera. A name to watch, she’s only just getting started and we can’t wait to see what she does next. Read on for the full interview and an insight into Rina Lipa’s process.
How did you first get into the arts? What has your journey looked like so far?
I started off as a ballerina. I was on point shoes at 11 years old, and it was kind of my whole world; “Rina Ballerina,” it was perfect. When I started ballet, we would put on plays that mixed both dance and acting, and I started to think maybe acting was more my thing. I carried on doing both, but I guess ballet was the beginning of all of that.
Can you tell us a bit about your latest project, Weight of Ribbons?
Weight of Ribbons follows a young girl balancing ballet with her life, and falling out of love with it, really. We see the emotional toll it takes on someone, but at the core, it’s about hopes, dreams and growing up. It also taps into isolation, change and the internal battle with yourself.
It sounds like a really personal project.
Yeah it’s really personal and it was quite vulnerable, obviously it’s dramatized, but I took it from my own experiences. But it was also cathartic and fun, as I’ve always wanted to mix dance, acting, fashion and film. You’ll see there are lots of incredible fashion moments that my stylist and I worked really closely on.
It’s so great that you can bring so many of your passions into one project.
Yeah, that’s how I’d like to go on from now. I love dressing up, I love performing, I love dancing, I’m a theatre kid!
Not only did you star in the film, but you also wrote the screenplay. How did you balance those two experiences, and what were some of the challenges?
I pushed myself out of my comfort zone completely. I’d written pieces for the stage, and I’d worked on monologues at school, but I’d never sat down and used a template for a script and done the whole thing. It started with little bits in notebooks, a journal, my notes app of things that I’d remember or sentences that I’d say to friends.
But putting the writer’s hat on was something completely different. I’m used to getting a script delivered, working on it and developing the character from there, whereas in this project, I got to do both. I felt so tied to this character because it came from me, so it felt natural and easy to delve into without as much research.
I think the only time I found it challenging was during filming, where I’m on camera and not actually directing. My incredible friend Louis [Melvyn] directed this film, but it was hard as I knew the character so well. When Louis and I would sit down as director and actor, I also had the writer hat on, so I had to try to balance all of those things without taking control of the whole project. I had to give Louis space to be creative in his world, as everyone had their lane. But I got to mix a bit between both, which was nice and new!
What made you want to tell this particular story? Why now?
The story is a lot about change. Throughout our teenage years and our 20s, we’re constantly evolving, and I’d realized I hadn’t tapped into that. I’d removed myself from my childhood dream of ballet and hadn’t reconnected with that side of myself for a while. So I started taking classes again and going back into dance, which was nerve-racking at first, but I realized there’s something quite nostalgic in it, and I wanted to bring that back.
I guess now was the time, because writing it and putting it out into the world felt like a release of some sort. Now just felt right, you know, I had a great working environment and great team members, it just worked out perfectly.
You mention how dancing was part of your life when you were younger. What was your training like to play the ballerina? Was it difficult to bring your acting and dancing together?
I continued to do lots of contemporary dance growing up, which for me was the storytelling style of dance. So I’d always had that on the back burner, but going back to ballet was very much about technique, posture, where your arms are eccetera. So with my teachers and choreographer, we worked through those things to get them back into my body. They were in there somewhere! At first, I thought, “Oh my God, what have I done to myself?” But it was so lovely to do. My inner child realized, “Oh wow, you can actually mix all the things that you love together.”
What themes do you hope resonate most with audiences?
I think there’s a lot about identity and allowing change to happen, but ultimately, whatever people want to take away from the film, I hope they make their own attachments to it. For me, it’s definitely about growing up and allowing that change. Someone might take it literally about a ballerina and about dance, but for me, that was just the tool I wanted to use.
What’s something people don’t know about you behind the scenes?
I’m very much an open book. I think maybe people don’t know that English is not my first language. My first language is Albanian, and I grew up in Kosovo for a really big chunk of my childhood. I have a whole group of friends there, and I did all my subjects at school in Kosovo. I moved around a lot, but I don’t think a lot of people know that I haven’t lived in London my whole life.
Who would be your dream role to play?
I always want to play someone who’s really complex and difficult to unravel. Not to be too on the nose, but one of my favorites is Nina from Black Swan, Natalie Portman’s character. She’s so compelling, and her breakdown in that film is a sort of liberation for her. She’s so controlled, and then that loss of control is like her becoming.
Emma Stone is also one of my favorites. Mia in La La Land, she’s romantic, she loves art, it’s both joyful and devastating. Or Emma in Poor Things, she’s fearless, curious and new to the world. In Poor Things, Emma just has no shame, which is great; it felt like a new, complex way to portray a woman. Emma Stone is definitely up there as one of my favorites ever.
What can we expect from you in the future?
More of this, I hope! I’m really lucky to have such an incredible, creative group of friends. Someone writes, someone directs, someone produces, there’s always someone creating. Hopefully, more short films, hopefully a feature film, something with characters that are complex and important stories to share with the world.