Kingdom of Us

How does a family deal with the memories of a traumatic event? It's a question examined with great sensitivity in this moving documentary. In her quietly watchful debut, British director Lucy Cohen impresses with a delicate, but powerfully effective exploration of grief, identity and family bonds. For over two years, Cohen filmed a mother and her seven children – six young women and a young man, whose father killed himself, leaving them in financial ruin. Incorporating archive footage of the family and evocatively capturing the West Midlands landscape around them, Kingdom of Us is a record of the siblings' emotional recovery as they piece together their broken past and reflect on their fears and aspirations for the future. Cohen's film possesses a luminous quality, highlighting the power of youth and resilience, as the family travel along the rocky road towards hope. (London Film Festival)