Clip: Innocence Lost in Alicia Duffy’s All Good Children

I’ll be seeing a good number of films from this year’s Director’s Fortnight section. With a line-up comprised of several feature debuts, one of the film’s I’m most itching to see is Alicia Duffy’s All Good Children, who until I mentioned her here, I hadn’t a clue as to who this filmmaker was. I’ve since become a fan of hers, thanks to her last short film in 2003’s The Most Beautiful Man in the World (which was presented in Cannes) and the trailer below (click on screen cap) — they both present the POV of a child or children under duress. There also appears to be hypnotic, naturalistic quality that’ll be compared to such films as Duane Hopkins’ Better Things are Andrea Arnold’s work. After the jump, you’ll find a synopsis.

Based on Sam Taylor’s novel The Republic of Trees, All Good Children centres on Dara and Eoin, two young Irish children of 11 and 12, who have to go and live at their aunt’s house in France, following their mother’s suicide. Eoin soon tries to run away. Terrified at the idea of being abandoned, Dara seeks comfort from young English neighbour Bella. Between them a friendship forms, turning into a true obsession for Dara. Realising his feelings are not reciprocated, the boy retreats to the forest. Reality and dream merge and he soon sinks into madness.