Seeking refuge, compulsive gambler Robert Houston Junior comes home to his estranged father, Robert Senior. Discovering a lapsed compensation claim for asbestosis, Junior resolves to pursue the case, encountering the young, ambitious lawyer Nicola Blyth who tells him he must produce a witness to testify on his father's behalf. Beneath Junior's altruism lies an uncomfortable truth. In debt and on the run from wealthy businessman, John Doran, following a disastrous loss at the poker table, Junior's only hope is to get his hands on his father's settlement. But hope, like luck, is in short supply. As father and son set out to find the witness, suspicion turns to torment as Robert learns of his son's motives and the true cost of Junior's betrayal is revealed.
Acting
Maurice Roëves' crumbling silence will wreck you.
Direction
May Miles Thomas makes Glasgow feel like a dying lung.
Director
May Miles Thomas
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The asbestosis epidemic devastated Scottish shipyard workers; this film captures a real, buried history of corporate neglect.
Maurice Roëves based his performance on men he knew growing up in working-class Scotland — the physicality of the role came from watching his own father's decline.
US
