Eibhlin,who is gentle,elegant and blessed with an instinctive understanding of small,shy children,greets her warmly,but Sean holds off. It’s only when Cait gives him a fright one day by wandering off that he lets his guard down.
The film was written and directed by Colm Bairead. He adapted it fromFoster,a short story by Claire Keegan that first appeared inThe New Yorker before its publication as a novella. And it’s in Irish Gaelic,becoming the first Irish language film to be shown in competition at the Berlin Film Festival,where it won a Silver Bear.
The misty beauty of the Irish countryside,where the Cinnsealachs have their farm,invests Cait’s new life with a dreamy serenity. She has chores to do,helping Eibhlin in the house and sweeping out the barns with Sean,but the kindness of these two and the calm,orderly pace of their daily routines are so reassuring that she quickly begins to thrive.
But we’re becoming aware that something is being kept from her. When she’s first brought to the farm,her father forgets to unload her suitcase from the car,and she’s left with only the clothes she’s wearing. Yet Eibhlin quickly produces a shirt,boots and a pair of trousers that happen to fit a child of her size.
Enough hints follow for you to guess at the secret but when the truth emerges,it still has an impact. It’s not the revelation itself but the fact that we have become completely attuned to Cait’s point of view. Like her,we’ve been cocooned,and this unwelcome intrusion is an icy blast – a cold reminder of the callousness to be found in the outside world.