A photographer has promised to take photos of a family that has experienced stillbirth. Here’s our review of Stillness, which played at HollyShorts London Film Festival.
As a society, we’ve slowly begun to discuss postpartum depression and the traumatic experience that childbirth can be, but we’re still learning to talk about stillbirth. It’s incredibly difficult for any family that experiences it, and writer-director Rachel Fowler’s Stillness captures that pain beautifully.
The short film begins in the waiting room where a woman, Rose (Caitlin FitzGerald), is waiting with her husband. They note that the wall has been changed, and she comments that she liked it better before. Rose is then called into a room with a family who’ve suffered stillbirth as she has offered to take family portraits of the baby and the parents.
Read more: Short Film Review: Gardening
Fowler never tells us what happened to the woman before her story starts, but the strong sense of loss that surrounds the film informs us that the mother and father aren’t the only ones grieving. The father initially asks Rose to leave; they don’t want photos, but at the mother’s insistence she stays and takes some pictures anyway, delicately asking what they had decided to name their baby and asking the parents to hold the child for a family portrait.
“I love him so much,” the father whispers in between sobs – and by this point this writer was in tears, too. Stillness is one of those rare short films that feels perfect in its length, communicating exactly what it needs to and telling a complete story in just a matter of minutes. Fowler’s film is profoundly moving and difficult to shake. A true gem.
Gardening screened as part of the HollyShorts London Film Festival 2024.
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