Writer and Director: Eva Birthistle
A complex exploration of isolation and obsession, Eva Birthistle’s film Kathleen Is Here is an interesting addition to the Raindance Film Festival programme. Originally conceived as a short, the film examines the life of Kathleen (played by Hazel Doupe) as she leaves the Irish care system.
Travelling back to her family home, the empty, dishevelled house brings back nothing but bad memories. Her support worker Damian (Aaron Monaghan) attempts to get Kathleen to focus on her future. A job at the town’s supermarket is secured. Initially wary of new people, Kathleen dazzles her co-worker Yvonne (a charismatic Liadan Dunlea) with her knowledge of celebrity culture. She rattles off the diet secrets of the Kardashians as easily as the alphabet. She also meets her neighbour, Dee (Clare Dunne) and there is a spark of connection between the two women. Warm, friendly and full of maternal concern, Kathleen finds in Dee the support she never received as a child. Their friendship, teetering uneasily between the platonic and something more, sees Kathleen edit out the unpalatable aspects of her past. As Kathleen vies for Dee’s attention, she sees Dee’s family – husband Rory (Peter Coonan) and son, Conor (James McGowan) – as an inconvenience. They are getting in the way.
Dunne will be appearing in the upcoming adaptation of Claire Keegan’s novel, Small Things Like These, and in Birthistle’s film, we can see echoes of contemporary Irish literature: the detailed creation of terse, complicated worlds. The juxtaposition of rural tradition and celebrity culture rubbing against each other builds an atmosphere of not quite belonging. It is not just Kathleen who feels adrift. Dee struggles to make sense of the loss of a child while seemingly having the perfect life; Yvonne actively stirs trouble in an attempt to find connection and meaning.
Kathleen Is Here also provides a searing commentary on the state of the care system. In foster care since the age of 4, Kathleen’s broken childhood, and its lack of affection, results in her being unable to form appropriate attachments. Her hard-wired sense of survival overrides any kind of emotional response. Doupe’s performance is, by turns, delicate and brittle. Her watchful, bird-like features are skilfully captured by Birthistle’s lens: we see what Kathleen sees, but, as it becomes increasingly clear, we do not see them in the same way.
This film is not your standard Single White Female. Birthistle has created a nuanced portrait of emotional damage, and how it reverberates through not just one, but several, lives. While Birthistle takes aim – and skewers – the care system and its failings, Kathleen Is Here also looks at isolation in a wider sense. Living in a small town that’s keen on gossip but less willing to get involved (the row of unblinking windows in Kathleen’s street are a nice metaphor), Birthistle asks bigger questions about how Ireland’s sense of community will evolve in the twenty-first century. As a tale of obsession, Kathleen Is Here works well. As a reflection on Irish contemporary life, it’s even better.
Kathleen is Here is screening at the Raindance Film Festivalwhich runs from 19 – 28 June in London cinemas.
The Reviews Hub Score:
Isolation and obsession
