I Hate the Way You Sound

In filmmaker Bébhinn Naughton’s Two Minute Masterpiece, I Hate the Way You Sound, Éabha thrives in solitude. For her, quiet isn’t just a preference - it’s oxygen. But the sanctuary of her home office has been traded for a desk in the heart of an open-plan office. She is engulfed by a wall of noise she cannot tune out. The fluorescent lights overhead hum at a frequency only she can feel, vibrating deep within her teeth. The distant, muffled laughter from the staff room feels like a mockery of her rising panic. Not even noise-cancelling headphones offer an escape. Instead, they create a pressurised void where her own heartbeat thumps like a drum.