The line between fact and fiction is thin to vanishing in this Liverpool-set experimental docudrama, a study of addiction and how it rumbles down through generations. It’s directed by visual artist Melanie Manchot and is being shown as a multiscreen installation in Cornwall as well as screening in cinemas. Manchot worked with a Liverpool recovery group, hiring members, with lived experience, as actors. At its worst the result has a bit of a workshop feel, stilted and a bit studied; there’s also expressionist dancing. But at its best, this is a painful, raw study of addiction, with a powerful, committed performance by Stephen Giddings.
Giddings plays himself (or a version of himself), a recovering alcoholic and aspiring actor up for the lead in a film; the character is called Tom, a bank cashier who had problems in the past with gambling. Tom has made a fresh start with girlfriend Sarah, who’s pregnant, and together they’re buying a flat – but Tom has started betting again, and alarmingly, he’s dipping into the bank funds at work.
