Filmmaker Statement

When Mum died suddenly on November 10, 2019, the world jolted on its axis. This happens when a giant pillar collapses — your mum, dad, brother, sister, friend, partner—everything shudders and, amid the rubble and dust, grief and chaos take the reins. A few weeks went by and I made a very strange decision. It was January, 2020. I decided to go back to her house in England and film the experience, aware that a health crisis was engulfing Europe. In this tiny village her house quietly waited, full of 71 years of her memories and things (and a lot of crap, too). Mum lived in Rutland, a tiny county in the East Midlands. I flew from Schiphol to Stansted Airport where my sister, Antonia, picked me up and we drove to the village, which sits beside a conservation area on Rutland Water. I had a goal in mind: to film this beautiful house and preserve mum’s personality and quirkiness through a short film. But inside the house I bumped up against a powerful force and a process out of our control.