Dún Laoghaire
2023 · 12m · Ireland
Directed by William Lancaster
Genres: dark comedy, drama
Tones: humorous, melancholic
A mother and daughter face off when the daughter attempts to install a new stove in her elderly mother’s home in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland—a simple domestic task that erupts into a charged reckoning over independence, aging, and the reversal of caretaking roles.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A mother and daughter argue about a stove for twelve minutes — the personal stakes are real but the format is so well-worn I can recite the beats from the synopsis. Decent but predictable.
Shot in the director's grandmother's actual house from the real directive 'Don't bring up the stove' — Lancaster knows that restraint in camera lets the performance carry the reckoning. 45 Years on a kitchen scale.
Twelve minutes shot in the director's actual grandmother's house, grown from a real family directive ('don't bring up the stove') — that personal specificity plus deliberate camera restraint keeping tension entirely in the performances is the right approach for a two-hander. Force Majeure / 45 Years comparison is earned by the chamber-piece structure.
Reviews
The emotional strength of the film is that we end up empathizing with both characters, as we find ourselves facing this unavoidable situation with them.
Festivals
- Palm Springs International ShortFest 2023
- Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF Shorts) 2023