Don't Go Where I Can't Find You
2021 · 20m · Ireland
Directed by Rioghnach Ni Ghrioghair
Tones: contemplative, dark, melancholic, surreal
Margaret, a celebrated composer, witnesses the violent accidental death of her partner and becomes convinced her spirit still haunts their home; she writes a new musical suite to drive the presence away, but each movement deepens her unraveling grief and erodes her grip on reality.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Composer writes a haunting suite that physically intensifies the ghost — music as both grief and supernatural fuel. That collapse of catharsis and possession could be great. Could be Phantom Thread cosplay.
Ni Ghrioghair's premise — composition as both narrative and supernatural force, in the lineage of The Duke of Burgundy and Phantom Thread — is precisely the kind of conceit I respond to. Whether the execution sustains it across twenty minutes is the question.
Short of the Week pickup, 20-minute Irish queer horror where the composer-protagonist's music is the haunting mechanism — a film willing to risk losing its audience by making the craft itself diegetic. That's the kind of structural gamble I want to back.
Reviews
There are films we like a lot, then there are films we love…this is one we fell in love with!
A fantastic production that strikes a chord on every level — makes good on its promise of providing an immersive and hyper-sensory ghost story that resonates intuitively.
Festivals
- SLASH Film Festival 2021, Méliès d'Argent Nomination
- Cork Film Festival 2021
- Foyle Film Festival 2021
- SXSW 2022
- Palm Springs ShortFest 2022
- Fantasia International Film Festival 2022
- Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival 2022, Aer Lingus Discovery Award Nomination