It starts with a pregnant young Anna, jumping off a cliff to what one could only imagine to be her certain death. However, we then join her again as she's in a bed with a bandage on her head and no memory. No memory of anything. Not the cliff-jumping incident, who she is, where she is from, where she is or who the people around her are.
The people around her are her husband, James, and a friendly, caring lady called Helen. They are lavishing her with sympathy for her situation and try to help her come to terms with the fact that she can't remember anything. They help her with photo albums and incidents from the past, but there's really no helping her as she just can't get there. So she grows to relax and trust the pair of them and accept that the man must be her husband.
They are in a cottage, in the middle of an island, isolated and alone, separated from the world. It doesn't take long for us to find out the first fact about the situation - that there's been some kind of virus and they are on the island in order to keep out of the way of it. However, Anna starts to get suspicious of the actions of Helen and, particularly, James so starts to push the boundaries trying to discover for herself what is going on.
This is where the strength lies, as I said, because we see what she sees to a large extent. We discover stuff as she does. We do get a little more insight than her, but not really with any great reveals - so yes, we're living the trauma and anxiety with Anna - and that works really well as a strategy for the unfolding of the tale. Now, later on it does get a little daft, frankly, when the reveals arrive and it's all very far-fetched, but that really doesn't matter because by then, we've soaked up the process. So that's all I'll say!
Erin Kellyman (28 Years Later, Blitz) plays Anna beautifully well, Maxine Peake (Dinner Ladies, Shameless, The Theory of Everything) is not far behind her as Helen, Ivanno Jeremiah (Humans, Black Mirror) is husband James, Corrado Invernizzi (Le Mans '66, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny), Peter, husband of Helen (who we don't see much of) and Peter McDonald (The Batman, The Dig) plays the Doctor attending to Anna in her pregnancy. It's a bit of a Brit Pack of actors from TV and film and I think that the production company is from Ireland.
It's nicely shot with claustrophobic interiors and lavish land/seascapes on display throughout. Careful use of interesting close-ups and focus are employed which often works well, adding to the anxiety, stress and growing paranoia within our main character, Anna. It's an enjoyable ride. Forget about the last 20 minutes and you will still have felt it had been worth the bus fare. I liked it. The only way I could find to watch this was via Dailymotion by the way. Presumably it'll come to mainline streaming eventually.
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