KISS OF LIFE

UK, 2003, 86 minutes, Colour.
Peter Mullan, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Millie Findlay, James E. Martin, David Warner, Gemma Jones.
Directed by Emily Young.

A film that is both modest and ambitious. Emily Young, who also wrote the screenplay, wants to explore a London family and its relationships as well as remind us of the 90s wars in the Balkans. She also wants to explore the impact of death and dramatically speculate on possibilities of limbo and purgatorial experiences. And all within 86 minutes. She succeeds.

By intercutting through the whole length of the film, both the episodes in London concerning a mother who is injured in a street accident, her two children (who are at awkward ages and miss their father working in Serbia) and her ageing father as well as the father's hardships in travelling back to England, we get to know all the characters while experiencing the sense of absence, the angers due to the absence and the need for some reconciliation and forgiveness, for a kiss of life.

The film is attentive to authentic detail and is served very well by Ingeborga Dapkunaite's presence as the loving mother and frustrated wife. Peter Mullan brings an earnest toughness to his role as the father.

1. Europe at the beginning of the 21st century? The range of countries, peoples? People living in security, wars and refugees?

2. London, real, ordinary and domestic, streets and schools, homes and hospitals?

3. The contrast with the Balkans, remote, truck stations, small villages, the roads, transport, the weather, the buildings ravaged by war? The musical score?

4. The title, the ironies about death and life?

5. The structure of the film, the parallels of the two stories, the way they were intercut? The similarities of lifestyles and quests, differences? The ending with the themes and stories coming together?

6. The limbo theme: Helen, in herself, in Katie's dream, in the rain unable to come into the house, seeing this fulfilled? The accident, seeing her get up, in the street, make her way home, see John, the discussion about things focusing on her, the reconciliation, the memories of the picnic with her children? With Katie and the reconciliation? Going into Telly's room, assuring him that it was not his fault?

7. The dreams of each of the characters and Pop's home movie? Images of the past, the present, images of the future as well as imagination?

8. The situation, at home, the photo, Helen taking the children to school after being so harassed, the phone call from John, his being so absent? Looking forward to her birthday, the trip to the woods? Looking after Pop? Her looking at the photo, on the side of the street, Telly witnessing the car hitting her, its not stopping?

9. John and his work, absence, the situation in the Balkans, languages, isolation? Paying to make the phone call? Asking the boss to leave, getting a lift, payments? His anxieties, the guards and taking his money and mobile phone? Waiting at the truck stop, having the beer, the discussion with the girl, hurrying on, the car breaking down, waiting and sleeping, going on the cart, the pass over the bridge, sitting on the side of the road after the trip to the village, getting the lift in the big truck, at sea, on the train? The scene where he pursued the boy up the stairs in the damaged apartment block, the children's fear and his apologies? His dreams on the train?

10. Telly, playing with the truck, squabbling with his sister, going to school, leaving, witnessing his mother's accident? The effect on him, at the hospital, kicking his legs, unwilling to go in? The home movie with Pop and his not being able to stay and seeing himself as a baby? His own dreams, his mother coming and giving him peace?

11. Katie, wanting to go out, the phone calls, her dreams about the woman in the rain? At school, the smoko, the teacher coming to get her, her grief? Telly and Katie cleaning up the spilt bathwater with Pop? Her father's return?

12. Pop, getting slow, ageing, irritable with people, irritating them, the news of his daughter's accident, going to the hospital? Fixing the machine and showing the home movie? The bathwater and his getting the children to clean it?

13. The ordinary background, the friendly woman in the street, the kids at school, the hospital?

14. The Balkans and the range of people that John encountered, their experience of the 90s and of war?

15. Helen and the limbo theme, not focusing on herself, being present to her family, guiding their lives, loving them? The bathwater as a sign of her presence?

16. The emotional ending, the family together, their future?