The COVID pandemic gave a lot of people time to think and reflect.
Some made sourdough, some learned to knit.
Director Sam Mendes wrote his first film.
Empire of Light, starring Olivia Colman, Michael Ward and Colin Firth, is a 1980s period drama set in a cinema in a small coastal English town.
But more specifically, it's based on Mendes's childhood and what it was like growing up with a mother who struggled with her mental health.
"The writing was really enjoyable, I got lost in it, and it was very kind of cathartic," Mendes told ABC News.
"It was a sort of mixture of familiar and strange."
Sam Mendes is known for his directing, including the acclaimed films American Beauty, 1917, and Skyfall and Spectre from the James Bond franchise.
'Get rid of this horrible shame'
Olivia Colman plays the lead Hilary, a duty manager at the Empire Cinema who lives alone and struggles with depression.
Hilary receives treatment for her mental health and begins taking medication when she strikes up an unlikely but tender friendship with a new employee at the cinema, Stephen, played by Micheal Ward.
Stephen and Hilary find a genuine connection, despite their differences in culture and age.
"There's so much shame attached to when you come out at the other end after treatment, or when you're back on some medication, the shame of remembering how you were before. That's awful," Colman told ABC News.
"You don't want to talk about it, you don't want to bring it up. Everything's OK now, let's not rock the boat.
"It's very important that that is not the case and that everybody is open about friends who are suffering with it, people who are suffering with it themselves, to talk openly and to get rid of this horrible shame attached to it all."
Olivia Colman says the way director and screenwriter Sam Mendes described the character was surprising.
"He talked about her as she was courageous, which I have to say is not what I imagined he would have said," she said.
"When she was at the top of her trajectory, before sort of tipping over the edge, she was brave, eloquent.
"She really stood up to the patriarchy and he said she was courageous."
Mendes inspired by BLM movement
Empire of Light is about mental health, but it also tackles racial tensions, which were prevalent in the 1980s and remain relevant today.
"It was the centre of the film for me, the spur for writing it," Mendes said.
"And the fact that also, there was this big racial reckoning in the world, Black Lives Matter, while we were in lockdown.
"I feel like they're both incredibly current issues that are unresolved."
Mendes says a lot of the film is also inspired by songs that influenced his formative years, including Ghost Town by the Specials and Going Underground by the Jam.
"The bands that were often the most successful were diverse, multiracial bands coming out of working-class communities in the north of England.
"So it was ironic because it was during a time of political difficulty, but there were these great role models for young black and white kids out there."
Empire of Light will be released in Australia on March 2.
