THE DARKEST LIGHT
UK, 1999, 92 minutes, Colour.
Kerry Fox, Stephen Dillane, Keri Arnold, Kavita Sungha, Jason Walton, Nisha K. Nayar, Nicholas Hope.
Directed by Simon Beaufoy and Billie Eltringham.
The Darkest Light is an intriguing film – rather dark than light and not so popular at the box office. However, it is a very worthy film, set in the Yorkshire moors and the small towns.
The film focuses on Stephen Dillane as Tom and Kerry Fox as Sue, farmers who have a young son (Jason Walton) who has leukaemia. Their older daughter is troublesome at school and home, feeling neglected. She is particularly nasty to a young girl who comes to the school, a Hindu background. However, the two girls become friends and, going to moors and an RAF testing ground, with the young boy, they have a strange experience of the light – filmed as if it were something of a nuclear explosion.
The little girl believes that the boy will be healed, the boy believes it is an apparition of the Virgin Mary. The Hindu girl believes it is a presage of doom.
An outbreak of foot and mouth closes down the farm (and this occurred a year or two before an actual outbreak that had even more dire results in England after the film was released). The film is sad in its presentation of the parents and their having to cope with all these problems, of the little boy facing death, of the young girl and her stubbornness in believing that the boy would be healed. The film also presents a very sympathetic picture of the Hindu family and their beliefs. Nicholas Hope (Bad Boy Bubby) appears as the parish priest.
This is a film about family, friendship, illness, interfaith understanding, and faith itself. The film was written and directed by Simon Beaufoy who made a great impact with The Full Monty. He also wrote the screenplay for Yasmin – a very interesting ecumenical award-winning film which treated the relationships between the Pakistani community and the white community in British cities. He also collaborated with Billie Eltringham in making This is Not a Love Song, released in cinemas but made available the same day for downloading.
The film evokes the Yorkshire atmosphere particularly well and was financially supported by the Arts Council and local film corporations.
1.The impact of the film? As drama? Its themes? Its characters?
2.The Yorkshire settings, the beauty of the moors, the cliffs, the sheep and cattle? The RAF testing ground? Homes, shops, hospitals? An authentic atmosphere? The musical score?
3.The Catholic background, the church, prayer, the background of visions? The parish priest and his down-to-earth approach? The comparison with Hindu beliefs, statues, shrines, legends? Hindu faith? The tolerance and understanding needed in Britain?
4.The title, the light on the moors, the strange experience for the children? Their interpretation? Hopes for good? Sense of doom? How were these fulfilled?
5.The Holroyd family, Tom, the Yorkshire farmer, silent, loving his family, anxious about his son, ticking his daughter off? His drinking? Trying to cope with his work? The two lost sheep, burning them? The outbreak of foot and mouth with his cattle? The destruction of the cattle, the isolation of the farm? The liquids for disinfecting surrounding the farm? The repercussions on him, on Sue? On the children? The criticism of the neighbours? The local meetings? The authorities and their stances? The issue of Matthew’s hospitalisation, the bone marrow, the letter with the match? Hospital, his death? His bringing up of his children – especially with Catherine, going to the headmistress, Catherine and her meanness towards Uma? His taking her to the shop, making her apologise? The growing bonds with the Hindu family? The final sadness, issues of faith, coping with suffering?
6.Sue, the devoted mother, her patience with her children, her wariness with Catherine and the vision? The concern about Matthew? The bone marrow, the hospital? Going to the field to wait for the vision? The interactions with the parish priest? Her prayer? The clashes with her husband, his drinking? The death, her accepting Matthew’s death? Support of Catherine?
7.Catherine, the story seen through her eyes? Her age, having to do the work, upset with Matthew, his illness? At school, the gossip about Uma, the meanness? Letting her fall in the drama class? The reaction of the principal? Her father coming, making her apologise, going upstairs, talking with Uma, the bond between the two? Understanding her, stopping any prejudice, listening to the myths of the Hindu religion? On the moors, watching the sheep? The coats flying in the wind, suggesting they should go over the cliff and fly? The going into the RAF field, the experience of the planes, the sound, the light? Her interpretation of hope, stubborn with her mother? The gossip around the town about her visions? People mocking her at the meeting? Her friendship with the family, the meals? The match and her delight? The sadness of Matthew’s death, her having to accept it? Her relationship with her parents? The aftermath? The funeral, being by herself, with her mother?
8.Matthew, his age, illness, hospital, coming out, his hair coming out, his father shaving it, his shaving his father’s head? Going into the field, the experience of the light, the vision? The match, hospital, his death?
9.Uma, her age, at school? The girls’ prejudice? Her fall, Catherine’s responsibility? In bed, preparing for Catherine’s visit, their talking, explanations? The strong bonds of friendship? Her sense of doom after the experience of the light? Her mother, friendly, the shop, the family helping? Her pregnancy? The issues of doom? Her thinking the baby had died in her womb? The hospital – and the signs of life, the birth of the child? Uma giving the child to Catherine to hold – a final image of hope and new life?
10.The parish priest, down-to-earth, sceptical, the cigarettes? Talking to Tom and Sue, with Catherine? In the field, urging the people to go home? The plane going over and everybody falling to the ground? The funeral, its ritual, its prayers? His talking with Tom after the funeral?
11.The people around, the farmers, the impact of foot and mouth?
12.The school, the headmistress, treating the children? Her interest in the visions?
13.A slice of life, the tradition of the English kitchen sink drama? Of the dramas by Ken Loach and Mike Lee? This film in that tradition? Adding the dimension of faith?
