Tulips

Bluesky

Dementia is an evergreen cinema topic not least because of its universal resonance. There can hardly be a soul on the planet lucky enough not to have seen an elderly relative succumb to forgetfulness. Two very different artworks of Tulips mark the join between generations in Rhys Prichard's short film, which focuses on a moment most dread, as a grandfather (David Shaw Parker) is no longer able to live independently.

When his daughter and son-in-law (Oona Kirsch and Paul T Willcocks) arrive to break the news, they bring their filmmaker daughter Sophie (Ishtar Currie Wilson) with them. She, in turn, brings a camera with which she hopes to document her grandad, while trying to jog his memory with trinkets from the past, including those tulips.

Straightforward in drama terms, Tulips blossoms emotionally thanks to the touching performance from Shaw Parker, which is right up there with Anna Calder-Marshall's evocation of memory loss in Queen At Sea. His ability to convey a lightbulb moment as the fog of dementia briefly falls away feels like a pure shot to the heart. Currie Wilson is, perhaps, the best known of the names here, thanks to The First Omen and Lockwood & Co but her Aussie vowels betray her in places. Prichard also raises interesting questions around the ethics of filming in these sorts of circumstances, although there's a sense that Sophie's film is used as much to vary the look and rhythm of his own short (no bad thing).

The other, most notable work, comes from cinematographer Ollie Lansdell, who handles the intimacy of a car interior and the grandfather's home with skill.

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