Helen (played with quiet authenticity by non-professional Annie Townsend), who has grown up in a care home, finds herself on the threshold of two different lives as she turns eighteen. Just as she is allowed access to the files that will reveal her heritage, she participates in a police reconstruction as missing teenager Joy Thompson and, through meetings with Joy’s parents, she begins to slip into the missing girl’s skin. Filmed in desolate parks in Dublin, Birmingham and Liverpool, the widescreen framing, and formal precision create a spacious canvas for these modest lives, while dialled-down performances from the cast of local amateurs, rendered the emotive subject matter somehow more powerful. This first feature from Desperate Optimists, Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, marked them as a distinctive new talent fully in control of their craft. Helen has been restored through the IFI and Screen Ireland Digitisation Project.

This screening will be introduced by Christine Molloy & Joe Lawlor.

See also New Release: The Future Tense, opening Fri 18th.