BRITISH AND IRISH FILM FESTIVAL
Queen at Sea
Recently divorced academic Amanda moves to London to help care for her mother, who has advanced dementia. Divided from her stepfather over who should make Leslie’s most intimate decisions, she sets in motion consequences that place an already fragile family under immense pressure.
Director
Lance Hammer (Ballast)
CAST
Juliette Binoche • Tom Courtenay • Anna Calder-Marshall • Florence Hunt
RATING
RUNTIME
2h 01m
COUNTRY
United Kingdom, United States
GENRE
Drama
LANGUAGE
English
WATCH TRAILER
FILM NOTES
A compassionate, quietly devastating exploration of love, dignity and the difficult boundaries of care.
Set in contemporary London, Queen at Sea marks writer-director Lance Hammer’s return to feature filmmaking after Ballast. At its centre is a painful question: when dementia erodes a person’s capacity, who should decide what remains in their best interests? Amanda and her stepfather Martin find themselves on opposing sides, though both believe they are acting from love.
Juliette Binoche brings intelligence and emotional complexity to Amanda, while Tom Courtenay and Anna Calder-Marshall give deeply affecting performances as the ageing couple. Winner of the Silver Bear Jury Prize at Berlin, the film refuses easy answers, instead inviting empathy for everyone caught within its moral dilemma. Intimate, thoughtful and beautifully acted, it offers a moving reflection on family responsibility and human dignity.
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