Film: ALLONE

Written & Directed by: Helen Rollins

Music by: Adrian Romero

Reviewed by, Andrew Keltner, PhD Researcher

The movie ‘ALLONE’ is a short film written and directed by North Irish filmmaker Helen Rollins and starring Máirín De Buitleír. The film is inspired by the Buddhist parable of Kisa Gotami and starts with the quote by Jacques Lacan: “Love is giving what you don’t have to someone who doesn’t want it.”

The film, with a runtime of fourteen minutes, is set in pre-Christian Northern Ireland and follows the story of a young mother, De Buitleír, seeking a mixture of natural and spiritual remedies for her ailing baby child. Through a series of encounters with different people, some being family and friends, strangers, druid medicine men, and finally a holy woman, the story ends by demonstrating how loss is, in the end, is a communitarian experience.

The story uses the horrible experience of a mother losing her child to set the mood for the viewer to understand how death affects us all. In this pre-Christian world, the ‘protagonist’ of this movie, the ‘black sun’ wrecks all peoples lives. Taking mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, loved ones. This is a world of grieving. And in that, the director uses the previously mentioned Buddhist parable as a manner to exercise her own creative spirit to give the viewer an understanding that through suffering there is a humanitarian project that one can undertake. Through understanding the suffering around, one is not alone, but that perhaps all are one.

The movie's cinematography is solemn, set in a world with grey skies and rain, only offset by the ever-present greenery of the Northern Irish landscape. From the dark waters of the coast to the higher hills of moss and grass, the locations set in the movie are beautiful - though dire. Adding to this authentic feel of a world, living somewhere between civilization and disaster, are the conditions shown that the characters are living in. Often nothing more than houses made of branches interwoven together with only a fire to sleep next to keep from freezing, one can imagine that this world was made for suffering. This is only expounded upon by the melancholy but much appreciated soundtrack, which adds essential layers to both the characters emotions and the feeling the viewer will be impressed on by the camera's delicate touch. One final great touch in this film is the use of the Gaelic language, which is an auditory treat in itself, despite the dramatic content of the film itself.

While this film could not have been intended as a remedy to be of use for the current COVID-19, coronavirus, crisis. The message the film certainly carries a message in it that is as salient now as a message could be. While there are troubles now, maybe not in a black sun, but in an imaginary crown, these troubles are affecting the human community, and in that there are beautiful connections to be made through group reflection.

Helen Rollins is a graduate of Cambridge University and in addition to making films she works with Adrian Romero on the podcast, (E) STRANGE (D)

The GCAS Review also reviewed Rollins’ previous film, MAKING LOVE.

ALLONE - A Film Review