Retired and widowed former sea captain Howard leads a solitary life, until his daughter Grace hires a widowed housekeeper Annie to take care of him. After a contentious beginning, a romantic relationship develops between Howard and Annie, which is difficult for Grace to accept. A nurse by profession, Grace has devoted her life to taking care of others, but she feels abandoned by her father. As Howard welcomes new love into his home, unfinished business from the family’s past rises to the surface.
The strengths of Klaus Härö’s classical film lie in the actors’ nuanced performances as well as its carefully realised narration that respects the plurality of the perspectives of the film’s conflicted characters. The director’s first film in the English language has been shot in Western Ireland on the Achill Island. The hills of the island and the ocean surrounding it provide an in-between zone, where the intimate drama takes place. Life at sea has already been left behind, but the seemingly endless Atlantic Ocean cannot be ignored.
Ilpo Hirvonen
Short film Blue Note by Pavel Andonov will be screened before My Sailor, My Love.