The Irish film-maker Robert Manson has gone back to his native Wicklow for this flawed, intriguing, indulgent movie with a touch of Kafka. It’s an experimental piece, drifting and dreamlike – though declining to let you know if it is a good dream or a bad dream – shot in black and white, with little bursts of colour Super 8.
David (Conor Madden) is a nondescript guy attempting to leave what appears to be a featureless little town. He is trying to catch a ferry, but keeps getting told he has the wrong ticket or he’s at the wrong terminal. (His passport is mysteriously of the old-fashioned variety.) An enigmatic woman called Rosa (Jeanne Nicole Ní Áinle) accosts him with weird questions and odd observations about which of the people they can see around them are still alive. Is she a dream he is having? Is he a dream she is having? Are they a dream someone else is having?
