Shared Remains - Rachel Lynch

 

New thriller in DI Kelly Porter series out now from Canelo

Following on from last year's bestseller Silent Bones, Lynch returns to her ongoing series of DI Kelly Porter who surveys and polices the Cumbrian landscape with her team while balancing a new relationship when not on duty.

This story revolves around the discovery of a body in a quarry one morning and from there a can of worms very much gets opened involving a nearby elderly home. At the home, mysterious deaths are mounting up, and then the paper trail leads to the discovery that the funeral directors are the main beneficiaries of the recently deceased. The only snag is that the quarry body is the funeral director, Vince, and there-in lies a problem.

Falsifying death certificates, grave digging and fraud all come to head for Porter and her team. This macabre set of narrative junctions lead to a less than breezy feel to the reading of the story that stops and starts on occasion with some emphasis put upon the domestic situation for Kelly at home which at times is a bit distracting.

As ever with Canelo Crime reads, the final quarter of the book - when the evidence comes to the fore and exhumations begin - is when the book kicks into gear with a gratifying conclusion for this reader.

The atmosphere of the book with the greys and dismal weather of late summer becoming that unimpeachable autumn is evoked effectively by Lynch, with the old adage grim up north ringing true.

And yet through the gloom, there is a ray of sunshine coming to the surface for Kelly with the hopes of a new relationship ready to bloom as snow falls on the ground

SHARED REMAINS is out now from Canelo

My thanks to them for the pre-approval on NetGalley for my review 

Nezouh

 

Double winner at 2023 Venice Film Festival released 

Written and directed by Soudade Kaadan, it tells the story of a family wanting to stay put in their house in war torn Damascus, rather than flee as refugees. While devastation and danger surround them, love and idealism keep them grounded and safe, even as a bomb hits them directly and their roof comes crumbling down. As they are held captive by their situation, they somehow find personal freedom.

Shot by celebrated cinematographer Hélène Louvart (La Chimera, Happy as Lazzaro, The Lost Daughter), the film contains a magical realism in its look and feel, that suspends reality while also never shying away from the atrocities that surround them. Co-cinematographer Burak Kanbir contributes to the authentic sense of time, place and space.

The film is in Arabic and stars Syrian actors Samer Al Masri and Kinda Alloush, alongside newcomers Hala Zein and Nizar Alani.

Kaadan says of the film and of her own experience: “It is only after the bombing started in our neighbourhood in Damascus that I left the house with my sister. Damascene society was conservative, even in liberal families. With the new wave of displacement, it became normal (for the first time) to see young Damascene women living alone and separating from their families. Myself, and many of my friends, started to make decisions we would never make before. Now, sadly, there is no more society, something new has occurred.” 

Kaadan’s filmography includes feature documentary Obscure (CPH:Dox 2017), narrative feature The Day I Lost My Shadow (Lion of the Future award for Best Debut at Venice Film Festival 2018) and short film Aziza (Sundance Grand Jury prize 2019).

She adds: “The word ‘nezouh’ means in Arabic the displacement of souls, water and people; it is the displacement of light and darkness. NEZOUH tries to talk about this inevitable invasion of light and hope in the midst of this chaos.”

Filmed in a style reminiscent of documentary and hand-held cinema, the film is a celebration of life and valuing that which you hold dear within that life; in this instance the father (Samir Al Masri) will not vacate his home despite the bombing, he is too proud of the legacy he has created in his home as Zeina says, 'my father is ready for anything, except leaving'

The film tellingly, in the magical realism mentioned previously, acts as it is upon a different spectral form, the clever device of the bombing essentially breaks down the wall for the characters - by expanding their space more story is available and the world is now open to them.

Incorporating styles such as Kiarostami who consistently balances that line between fact and fiction and the eccentric work of Roy Andersson, the Swedish absurdist, there is always life in dull moments of existence; this is a film that tells so much about the human condition.

Screenings can be found here

NEZOUH is out from Modern Films on limited release from 3rd May around the country

That They May Face The Rising Sun

New Irish award-winning film based upon the novel of the same name by Irish author, John McGahern's final novel

Patrick Collins, an audio-visual poet who has created works of quiet solitude set against the picturesque setting of the lush Irish landscape has found the means to create a faithful adaptation to McGahern's work and a love letter to that beautiful countryside reflecting upon a simpler time without mobile phones and other modern day distractions.

Joe (Barry Ward) and Kate (Anna Bederke) have returned to their homeland to live the good life - to borrow from a late 70s cultural artefact - and what we would describe nowadays as off the grid. Joe is a writer (a conduit for McGahern himself), experiencing the place he lives in and soaking that into his daily writing. Kate owns and runs an art gallery in London, a reason for her to still return to the capital on occasion to visit friends. Yet they are living at a pace of their own making, with no children on the horizon seemingly, they are content to live in this happiness - the building of a shed or timber outhouse painstakingly over the year with little or no progression indicative of a life being lived slowly.

The couple, who would be described as bohemians I suppose, have an open door policy welcoming visitors, neighbours and family whenever ready for a cup of tea and sympathetic ear. These interactions with the community works as a sort of social currency, in exchange for information and conversing, the couple are thought of highly in that community.

This is Collins' third feature film and he is a vaunted documentarian, his keen eye of observation and minute detail works in perfect harmony with that of the relationship of the couple who fit perfectly within a suburban setting yet are finding solace with their lot in life, a path that they have made for themselves. The film is finding that balance between the rituals of life and work along with the passing seasons; we bare witness to one year in the life of this couple but it could be any year over a ten year period with the added fork in the road moments of someone's passing - world events do not occur in this world of County Galway, where principal photography taking place near the Mayo border.

Credit for the film's feel and look goes to Richard Kendrick, who has shot both of Collins' first two films Silence (2011) and Song of Granite (2017), there are moments when Joe and Kate are embracing and the film looks like an Austen adaptation per excellence and that is the general feel of the film as something approaching a comfort watch like All Creatures Great and Small or Doc Martin; a lovely teatime viewing that is nostalgic without feeling cheesy with a tone of maturity that is not patronising.

Collins in conjunction with Kendrick and the score by Irene and Linda Buckley which is soft and ambient yet very much in keeping with Irish heritage has crafted a film that is intelligent, adult and beguiling.

The film has just won Best Irish Film at the Irish Film and Television Awards this month, and is about to have a limited release at select repertory cinemas across the country. This is recommended viewing for those who miss those slow paced films that teach us a lot about the world we used to know, love and mostly miss; a film that rewards its audience for its patience. A virtue lacking in today's age. 

That They May Face The Rising Sun is out from Conic Films on 26th April