My Days of Mercy

Lucy's father is on death row and her family travels the country protesting outside prisons on execution days. On the other side of the car park stand the supporters of capital punishment, and Mercy is there; her family was shaken by a murder of its own. The two women talk first, then fall in love, and have to hide the relationship from both sides. Tali Shalom-Ezer does not try to win the political argument and leaves two people simultaneously right and simultaneously helpless. Elliot Page and Kate Mara play them and both backed the film as producers. The idea came out of a single paragraph in a book by John Grisham. The result is calm, slow and deliberately unresolved. Who it is for: viewers who like queer love stories and the argument over capital punishment. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a clear political verdict.