Margo Lily

Recently I was really taken by the simple beauty of Long Branch, a film from the partnership of Clark and Stewart which I had loved. By coincidence I watched another short (Captivus) which was written by Clark, which I didn't think worked as well but regardless I was looking forward to seeing more from the pair as directors and writers. Margo Lily was that film and it is very much the opposite from Long Branch because while that was about passion, sweetness and affection, this film is about loss and sadness – in particular the loss of a child.

In the film we really don't know the details of the loss although we presume it was stillborn since the couple are burying a placenta in their front yard and then planting a tree on top of it. The situation is simple but complicated by the ground being frozen solid. Neither the details of the death or the specific challenge of getting through the frozen ground matters too much though because just like Long Branch was best when we were close to the two main characters, so it is here and the film allows us to be there for intimate small moments within their grief – moments they experience along and moments they experience together. This allows us to feel their loss but also to see how the cope with it as a couple and find strength with one another; there is no doubt that they will be OK and the film gives us this while also giving us their pain.

Technically we are on common ground with Long Branch because it is filmed at night in the cold and like that film it looks great regardless. The lighting and film is clear with a sharpness to the images that befit the cold, crisp night that we are out in. The performances from Wilson and Poole are excellent, not because they have big flamboyant scenes to work with but because they deliver a lot with very little time, very simple dialogue and a lot of back-story to convince of. They do this really well and you feel for them as individuals but also as a couple, because this is what they feel like.

It is a simple scene but it is one that delivers a lot through the smaller detail. Well worth a look. I have read in other sites that Clark and Stewart are a pair to watch for the future, but to me they are a pair to watch for what they are doing right now.