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

Details

Year
2017
Type of film
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

Categories

Production Status

Production Company

Paradogs Films

Steven Eastwood

Hakawati

Elhum Shakerifar

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

Of Camera Of Camera

Director: Steven Eastwood

Year: 2004

Of Camera explores the abortive attempts of two people to be together in the same space. Their disagreement is fuelled by technical difference: the woman exists on videotape and the man on celluloid. The story corrupts as the two realise they are incompatible and that they are being filmed and watched.

Spacewoman Spacewoman

Director: Hannah Berryman

Year: 2024

A landmark feature documentary about astronaut Eileen Collins, the first woman to pilot and command the Space Shuttle.<br /> Eileen’s incredible journey starts with her smalltown beginnings, sees her smash through many glass ceilings, and culminates in four dramatic space shuttle missions, the last being possibly the most dangerous and most important of them all.<br /> At its heart the film is the moving human drama of one family, where a mother’s extraordinary career takes us straight to the big philosophical question of what is the level of acceptable risk in human endeavour? <br /> This film celebrates Commander Collins’ trailblazing NASA career which opened the way for women to become spacecraft pilots and commanders, and proved a perfect riposte to a previous generation of male astronauts who thought there was no place for women to lead the way in space. <br /> Official Selection DOC NYC 2024 - World premiere<br /> Official Selection CPH:DOX 2025 - European premiere

The Disco, a Portrait of Simon Eilbeck The Disco, a Portrait of Simon Eilbeck

Director: Alex Hetherington

Year: 2025

A 16mm sound and image experimental portrait of d/Deaf DJ Simon Eilbeck and the Queer, Trans, alternative and non-binary communities who gather at his monthly disco Hot Mess.