Lilting

Kai has died. Two people are left: his mother Junn and Richard, who had been with him for four years. Junn is Chinese Cambodian; she lives in a care home in London and speaks no English. She did not know about her son's relationship with Richard either; Kai kept putting off telling her. Richard begins visiting her. They cannot talk. He finds an interpreter and the three sit in the same room. Junn has a friend at the home who also speaks English; the interpreter carries that relationship too. Hong Khaou writes and directs. Ben Whishaw plays Richard and Cheng Pei-pei plays Junn. It is the director's first feature. The film was shown at Sundance and won the cinematography award there. The matter at the centre is translation; every sentence passes through someone else's mouth and what was meant changes on the way. The structure weaves the present and the past; Kai appears in scenes and the narrative does not mark that as a flashback. The subject is grief and recognition; Richard cannot introduce himself and has to demand it. The care home is inside the narrative and old age and loneliness stand as a separate strand. It was made on a small budget and shot largely in interiors. Who it is for: viewers who like quiet British drama and narratives built on grief. Who it is not for: little happens, the pace is slow, and the narrative suppresses feeling.