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Directed by Mairin O'Hagan

“Why do you make me leave the house
And think for a breath it is you I see”
The Going, Thomas Hardy

It’s been 6 months since Leila died. So why does it feel like she’s still here?

Memories of Emma's wife are heaped all over the house: handwritten notes in her favourite book, her scent on an old scarf, her coat by the door…and the chain of old text messages sent before it happened.

Emma knows it’s time to clear out and move on. But Leila’s number is still on her phone, as though she is just a text message away. And when Emma’s writings begin to summon a strange figure in red, she realises that she’s not that ready to let go...

Female first-time filmmakers, Queynte Laydies, present a short film about grief, ghosts and loneliness, based on the 1912 poem by Thomas Hardy.

Director Statement
When people die, they leave behind a trail of possessions and communications for their loved ones to sort through. In my own experiences of bereavement, I have found it so hard to let go of the possessions left behind by my father and my much-loved grandparents because they feel like little pieces of connection that I don’t want to lose. I’m always taken by surprise when I see a piece of handwriting that belonged to someone I loved who is no longer alive—it’s so instantly recognisable, so specific to that person, formed over years of practice and self-definition. The character of Emma was someone I immediately cared for as a woman struggling with letting go after a great loss, in a house packed full of the possessions accumulated during a relationship that spanned decades. I was drawn to this film as a portrait of grief and the internal resistance that we feel when it comes to letting go of someone we’ve lost. I love the setting of this film in Sussex, where the stormy, wintry landscape beautifully reflects Emma’s sense of desertion and isolation, as well as contributing to the atmosphere of horror in the film.

I love the Thomas Hardy poem that inspired the film. In it, Hardy asks his dead wife: “why do you make me leave the house, and think for a breath it is you I see?” He writes as though the power of this woman’s memory is enough to control this living man’s behaviour, to “make” him do things. I was interested to explore where ghosts might come from, are they real entities that can make us perform to their will, or are they something we summon into existence when we don’t feel ready to let go of what we’ve lost? I love the certainty with which Hardy poses this question of his wife, accompanied by the doubt and mystery that comes with trying to get one’s head around death.