A hospital vigil becomes a fever dream of roads not taken—1981's forgotten feminist time bomb.
'When I was your age I wanted to go to Italy more than anything in the world ... old buildings .. , sunlight. Blue skies ... the air full of the sound of bells in the morning and at dusk.' A mother, waiting for a visit through a hospital day, looks back on her life. Dreams haunt her, fantasies seduce her, memories crowd in on her, distorting the drab reality of her day to day existence. Must her daughter follow in her footsteps? How can she find a way to guide her towards a brighter future?
Acting
Anna Calder-Marshall carries entire lifetimes in a single exhausted glance.
Direction
Rolfe blurs reality and reverie with surgical precision.
Director
Michael Rolfe
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during Thatcher's Britain, the film quietly rages against the domestic trap sold to working-class women. It vanished almost immediately—possibly too honest for 1981.
This was Michael Rolfe's only feature; he spent his career in television, and Anna Calder-Marshall was primarily a stage actress. The film's obscurity is nearly total—no DVD, scarce prints.
GB
