Little Fish

A film set during an epidemic. The illness erases memory. In some it happens at once, in others it takes months, and there is no cure. Emma is a vet. Jude is a photographer. They met two years ago and live together. The signs start in Jude. Small things first; then one morning he does not remember where he works. From there the film is a story about record keeping. Emma writes everything down, puts notes on the wall, writes names on photographs, and tells him again and again how they met. The narrative is not chronological. The scenes move constantly between now and the past and for a while the audience does not know what happened when either; the structure imitates the illness itself. A trial treatment appears. There is a waiting list and Jude's turn does not come. What the narrative is interested in is not the epidemic but the relationship: the film keeps the outside situation in the background; there are hospital queues and news, but the camera stays on the same two people. There is another line. Jude's friend is a musician whose wife cannot recognise him; that couple is the hardest section in the film. The ending takes place on a beach and closes on a single question. The source is a 2011 short story by Aja Gabel; the screenplay was written by Mattson Tomlin. The production has a strange side. The film was written and shot before the real pandemic; it is set in 2021 and describes a contagious illness. Olivia Cooke, Jack O'Connell, Soko and Raúl Castillo are in the cast. Chad Hartigan directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes quiet, emotional science fiction. Who it is not for: anyone who wants clear narration; the order of time is deliberately confused and the film explains nothing.