Still Life

An elderly woman awakes on a Sunday morning at 7:30, but stays in bed. While in bed she stares around her room and dozes, reminiscing about her past - the loss of her friends, her husband leaving her and the moving out of her children from Northern Ireland to start lives in Canada.

Being from Northern Ireland myself, I was curious to see a short that was made there, especially one that wasn't just set around or about The Troubles. This was described by the presenter as `poignant' and she was bang on the money because that is the best way to describe it. There is no story to speak of - just an old woman, slightly sad and lonely, who spends her Sunday in bed with her memories. These memories are seen as the camera scans over the frames of faded and recent family photographs that haunt her. Most of her memories are happy but they have been tainted by the passage of time.

To hear her voice makes it more moving as you sense this is very real to the actress - Adair did a good job with her narrative to really involve the audience. The film's weakness is a lack of punch to it, but this actually succeeds in making the film more poignant - it is just an old woman's recollections, not a tale or a epic story.

Overall this is a simple film and not one that will have a massive emotional impact on you right there and then. Instead it is slow and builds after you watch it. It may not set the world on fire but it is sweet but also sad at the same time. Well worth a watch - and not just because it is from Norn Ire'nd