ISLAND (Dur. 90:00.  2018)

A film by Steven Eastwood

Produced by Steven Eastwood and Elhum Shakerifar

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Across the water on the island, four individuals experience the year in which their lives will end. Illness progresses, relationships gently shift, and we are witness to rarely seen and intensely private moments. One person shares their acceptance of death, whilst another is surrounded by a community in shock. We observe bedside care and the rhythm of breathing. In a pathology lab, microscopic biopsies in close-up show the interior of bodies, our biology. Filmed over 12 months on the Isle of Wight, Island is a life-affirming reflection on the phenomena of dying, portraying the transition away from personhood and observing the last days and hours of life and the moment of death. Like the ferries cyclically arriving and departing in this an enigmatic landscape, the film appears buoyant, afloat. Death is shown to be natural and everyday but also unspeakable and strange.

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ISLAND was released in UK cinema in 2018 and is available on VOD, please visit the film's official website.

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BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM AWARD BEST DOCUMENTARY NOMINEE 2018

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★★★★★ “A memento mori in a pretty direct form” The Sunday Times

★★★★ “Hauntingly evocative”  The Guardian

“Dignified and poetic” Total Film

“Disarmingly intimate” Sight and Sound Magazine

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A Hakawati Production in association with Paradogs Films. Funded by

Arts Council England and Big Lottery with the support of FreeFolk Post

Production, CODA Post Production, Queen Mary University and Fabrica.

 

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