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Project Detail

ISLAND

Synopsis

Across the water on the island, four individuals experience the end of life. Showing rarely seen and intensely private events, the film follows the progression of illness for each character and, for one, the last days and hours of life, the moment of death, and after death care. A lyrical, slow cinema description of the temporality and phenomena of dying, this film sensitively witnesses the transition away from personhood.
This is a palliative island, the Isle of Wight, an enigmatic landscape where all around rituals persist. Parallel to bedside vigils and the rhythm of breathing, we see rescue owls on the hospice ward, the rugged coastline, and the constant ferry arrivals. A choir rehearses Brahm’s 'German Requiem'. In the hospital pathology lab, microscopic close-ups of cancer show the interior of the bodies, our biology, our creatureliness. Death is presented as natural and everyday but also unspeakable and strange.
Official Selection Rotterdam International Film Festival 2018 - International premiere
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Details

Year
2017
Type of project
Features
Running time
90 mins
Format
HD 4k
Director
Steven Eastwood
Producer
Steven Eastwood, Elhum Shakerifar
Editor
Steven Eastwood, with Sergio Vega
Director of Photography
Steven Eastwood
Funded by
Arts Council England and Big Lottery

Genre

Experimental

Categories

Documentary

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

Paradogs Films

Steven Eastwood

Hakawati

Elhum Shakerifar

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