(The mystery for Cáit to discover is why there is a wardrobe of boys’ clothes at the couple’s house, when they do not have children.) My favourite moment comes when grumpy-seeming Seán silently leaves a chocolate biscuit on the kitchen counter for Cáit – a tiny gesture of love that speaks volumes. It tells us everything about his indifference.
When Cáit’s dad drops her off at the Cinnsealachs’, he drives off with her suitcase in the boot, leaving her only with the clothes in which she is standing. This is a film of gorgeous simplicity and heartbreaking humanity – full of details that gave me great rushes of overwhelming emotion. It is as if she is being seen for the first time. But in the care and kindness of these strangers – with hot baths, hair-brushing, a pound slipped into her hand for a choc ice – Cáit comes to life. At the beginning of summer, Cáit’s dad packs her into his battered Ford Cortina and drives three hours to Waterford, to drop her with relatives she hasn’t seen since she was a baby: her mum’s cousin Eibhlín Cinnsealach (Carrie Crowley) and her gruff farmer husband, Seán (Andrew Bennett). Her father is a drinker and gambler her exhausted mother struggles to meet the basic needs of her children. It is set in early 1980s rural Ireland, where withdrawn little Cáit (Catherine Clinch, already being talked up as the next Saoirse Ronan) is unloved and ignored by her family. ‘Modest, thoughtful and not fully relaxed at being the centre of attention.’ Colm Bairéad.
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