Light Years was a tour de force. I loved the ramming together of lyrically beautiful countryside against the roar of traffic and then long snaking vistas of brutal motor way traffic, embedded in the softness of the trees and the land.It encompassed the schizophrenia of the land (this our England) the allegory of nature , and then the scars of traffic.I loved the children who were unique, slightly lost in fantasy and anxiety while present in their disorganised every day.The tale was so contemporary, the fractured family and the absent mother . Shocking then too when the mothers first impulse is to buy beer, making it more sweet, that Rose continues to adhere to civilised behavior.The enormity of children watching parents disintegrate, how pitiful it was and how courageous they all were. (the image of them watching their parents from the outside of the institution is a haunting one)Not only that but some moments of charm, the deaf boy declaring his love for Rose, performing resuscitation on the white rat, accepting his geographical no go areas, all beautifully and quietly mapped out, like life. Full of Injury, self doubt, charm, grace and stoicism.What a wonderful tale and a foreign father, good at his job, absorbed, at ease with bats and butterflies and his own house rotting, curling at the edges around his family .Then there was the terrifying old Father Time figure, half naked, fit, running, maddened, the comfort of old nightmares, terrifying .All these vignettes woven through with flights of birds in configurations that looked like symbols but rendered up no meaning, passages of countryside as pastoral and lovely as a Samuel Palmer and then the appalling ugliness of new builds, wind turbines, warehouses, tracks, noisy roads, all of this an elaborate embroidery, a meta language for a benign form of chaos which the protagonists ride through. Bowed a little, but victorious as Victors are, with life still in them.It was an amazing film made thoughtfully, sensibility shone through it. It is lovely. My congratulations to Third Films.

I was delighted to see Light Years last night.It was a tour de force. I loved the ramming together of lyrically beautiful countryside against the roar of traffic and then long snaking vistas of brutal motor way traffic., embedded in the softness of the trees and the land It encompassed the schizophrenia of the land ( this our England ) the allegory of nature , and then the scars of traffic.I loved the children who were unique , slightly lost in fantasy and anxiety while present in their disorganised every day .The tale was so contemporary , the fractured family and the absent mother . Shocking then too when the mothers first impulse is to buy beer ,making it more sweet , that Rose continues to adhere to civilised behaviour. The child mothers the mother.The enormity of children watching parents disintegrate , how pitiful it was and how courageous they all were.( the image of them watching their parents from the outside of the institution is a haunting one )Not only that but some moments of charm , the deaf boy declaring his love for Rose, performing resuscitation on the white rat, accepting his geographical no go areas, all beautifully and quietly mapped out ,like life. Full of Injury , self doubt, charm , grace and stoicism .What a wonderful tale and a foreign father , good at his job , absorbed ,at ease with bats and butterflies and his own house rotting , curling at the edges around his family .Then there was the terrifying old Father Time figure , half naked ,fit , running , maddened , an old nightmare, a spectre of ageing All these vignettes woven through with flights of birds in configurations that looked like symbols but rendered up no meaning, passages of countryside as pastoral and lovely as a Samuel Palmer and then the appalling ugliness of new builds, wind turbines, warehouses, tracks , noisy roads , all of this an elaborate embroidery , a meta language for a benign form of chaos which the protagonists ride through. bowed a little , but victorious as Victors are, with life still in themIt was an amazing film, thoughtfully made.

This British film is set in the border between urban and rural life. A dysfunctional family of children are rattling around an old house in an endless summer holiday, their mum is ill and has changed and is no longer there, their dad seems to be hardly there and is mainly hiding in his work at an industrial horticultural complex. The film is interested in the ways the younger people are copying and understanding the world they are growing into - for example The older girl is exploring her sexuality and a younger brother is fixating with his genetic potential to also have what ever illness has beset his mother. The excellent performances from the mainly young cast and mood the film creates are both dream like and also full of emotion. This film is not about loud large plot points, but is about everyone trying to find something within themselves, for everyone to connect somehow with their past life and move on in some way. The film evokes the emotions of the children trying to shake of the ennui their mum's situation has inflicted on them.The character's journey in various ways through an urban rural edge landscape. One of the younger children eventually finds their mum in the care home. Mother and daughter share a few joyful lucid moments together but this is short lived. I am in danger of listing all the parts of the film and not really reviewing it. This film really should be seen in a good cinema with excellent sound, the film making is very deft and at certain points sublime... and my writing will not do it justice. In Light Years there is a reflectiveness about childhood, and life and what should you do with it and how injustices and fears and anger can curse though you and then somehow go or shift. The film could be seen as a metaphor about growing up, once all the strange teenage hormones disperse into adulthood the characters seem to reach a place where they have to eventually let their mum go.A film not to everyone's taste, but for me this film is trying to say something new, and does it in a way that is very engaging, concise and cinematic.

There is no doubt that imagination protects from pain. And kids master in that. What they see beyond the sky is nothing less than "God's Hat", so there's no surprise when they believe that a Mum's or a Dad's life is forever. Like the one of a star which remains visible even if dead, being "light years" distant from us. A family can be a constellation of stars: they keep illuminating each other's life although they are no more. What if one of those glittering stars is a dying mother whose brain is collapsing but not her love for her 3 kids? The younger, Rose, is only 8 but she "knows" inside of herself that her mum is still there for her and will protect her as a "God's Hat". Talented British helmer Esther May Campbell wrote and directed her first long feature film like a wonder-dream, full of amazing audio/visual ideas that stir the audience and satisfy the critics. Nothing is there by chance, like a lyrical symphony sounding powerful and tender at the same time. Acclaimed at Venice Critic's Week 2015. Can't wait to watch her second feature film!