There’s a hint of the poetry of Mark Cousins in artist/film-maker Karen Guthrie’s almost whispered narration for this poignant examination of the bonds of family love. When her mother is debilitated by a stroke, Karen and her siblings rally round, joined by father, Ian, who left them years ago, but who has remained a powerful presence/absence. Unravelling the complex strands of their home life takes Karen from Scotland to Africa, wondering how she managed to go so long without asking:“How exactly did we get here?”
Although her story is unusual, anyone with more everyday experience of separated or incapacitated parents will recognise the strange stresses, strains and areas of silence with which Guthrie wrestles. It’s oddly intimate fare, at times a touch too inward looking (particularly when musing about what Karen has inherited from each of her parents), but honest and heartfelt throughout, driven by an unfashionable desire to heal, rather than merely reopen, old wounds.
