Out Of The Cold

This short from 3 Sisters Films, directed by Nic Shearer, is one of those delicate, "poetic" pieces. Lacking a clear incident-driven narrative, it's more an impressionistic series of encounters from a few days of its central character Patrick's life, as he begins to ponder the meaning of life in that cusp-of-adolescence way, as his parents' relationship shows signs of falling apart.

Unlike many Scottish shots, where the Scottishness is more an accident of the filmmakers' location than anything else, Out Of The Cold displays a strong sense of place and cultural identity, epitomised by the pithy exchange between Patrick and his elderly neighbour:

Neighbour: Life is like the ocean

Patrick: How?

Neighbour: It's bloody cold and wet

Perhaps the best way to describe the film, then, is to say that it's reminiscent of a miniature version - a chapter as it were - from Lynn Ramsay's Ratcatcher, or Alan Rickman's The Winter Guest. No bad thing in my book.