Corona Cork Film Festival - The Englishman

Henry is not from England. An outsider. He watches, noticing things, things like the tap of the café woman’s shoes as he follows her, never getting close. Then the world moves in on him. He is given an apprentice at the garage, Andrew, a boy sprung like a nervous whippet. Then Svetla, arriving with her long fingernails on his doorstep and needing a roof over her head. First turning her away he then has to let her in. When Andrew collapses at work it’s the same kind of obligation that makes Henry bring him home; almost forgetting he has a ‘wife’. Henry and Svetla have to sleep in the same bed. They don’t touch. The closer you get…things can get difficult. Getting close never did Andrew any good either and the growing warmth between the three of them propels him into attacking the very thing that could save him. He engineers Svetla’s removal - he’ll have Henry for himself. When Henry finds out Andrew, in turn, is rejected. Henry is alone again. The world does not notice as he follows the café woman into the park. Some people have trouble getting close.

This is a film that deals with love - the near impossibility of love when you carry with you a past where, as adult or child, your heart was broken. The closer you get the harder contact becomes.