The Cement Garden

The father dies laying concrete in the garden. Four children and their mother are left. The house is at the edge of the city; the buildings around it have been pulled down and there are no neighbours. The mother falls ill. She cannot get out of bed and one day she dies. The children tell nobody; if they do they will be separated and taken into care. They put her body in a trunk in the cellar and pour concrete over it. Then life goes on. Julie is seventeen, Jack fifteen. They have younger siblings. The house makes its own rules and nobody looks in. Andrew Birkin writes and directs. Andrew Robertson plays Jack and Charlotte Gainsbourg plays Julie; Alice Coulthard and Ned Birkin are in the cast. It is a British, German and French co-production. The source is Ian McEwan's novel. The film won the Silver Bear for direction at the Berlin Film Festival. The director is Charlotte Gainsbourg's uncle, and his own son is in the cast. The matter it treats is the absence of supervision; with no adult left the children build an order and that order rots. The narrative passes no judgment and gives the viewer no explanation. The house is the single location; the outside is almost never seen. Its subject is incest and the narrative shows it directly; it caused controversy on release. Its limit is the watching; the subject is uncomfortable, the narrative cold, and the ending shattering. Who it is for: viewers who like British independent cinema and literary adaptations. Who it is not for: it is uncomfortable, sombre, and the ending hard.