Burrow

Description

A young girl begins her day in 1999 on an Epping council estate as a rag and bone \"scrap\" man passes the house with his horse and cart. Flo is staying temporarily with her aunt Maura who suffers from long term heath issues and Flo spends a lot of time helping her. At the beginning of the film we see Flo doing the morning\'s domestic chores, preparing breakfast, and setting out Maura\'s medication. Over breakfast, Maura takes a phone call agreeing to help a friend with something. On the phone call she implies that Flo is with her due to problems at home, but that having around is helpful. Later Flo is outside strimming in the garden and a bird flies overhead. She senses something strange, a presence nearby, but is called to help her aunt. We see Flo performing chest clearing exercises on Maura who is severely asthmatic. They leave the house to visit Flo’s grandmother, Iris (Maura’s mother) in a care home. Iris has dementia. Iris becomes upset during the visit. Maura tries to feed her some fruit and sweets to distract her mother. We see in this scene that there is a struggle with illness in the family but there is much left unsaid. The emphasis is on denial and coping rather than acknowledging and communicating. Flo has a rucksack with her which we see contains Maura\'s asthma medication. They drive to another neighbourhood to feed some pet chickens - the favour that Maura agreed to in the phone call at the beginning of the film. They find a dead older chicken in a cage. Unable to cope with the sight of death, Maura leaves Flo to remove the chicken and dispose of the body. As they drive home. Maura is annoyed to see the bagged body of the chicken on Flo’s lap. The child\'s fascination with the dead animal is very distressing for Maura but she doesn\'t know why - she can only express this with anger and resentment. She gasps for air feeling panicky and symptomatic and Flo retrieves Maura\'s pills from her rucksack They eat dinner, Maura is upset and sullen. Flo washes up, but is distracted by the dead bird sitting in the bag by the door. She still hasn\'t got rid of it. The body seems to be calling to her. She is interrupted by Maura having an athsma attack. Maura is hyperventilating, demands her medication. Flo, panicked, grabs the rucksack and tips it out searching for the pills. The dead chicken\'s body falls on the table and Maura screams at Flo ordering it out of the house and scolding her for endangering her life by no acting fast enough. Flo flees the house with the dead chicken. Outside, she encounters the rag and bone man from the morning. He shepherds her to the forest and they bury the body in the earth. She is comforted. Flo returns to the house but remains outside, looking in from a new perspective.

Biblical Connection

Ecclesiastes 3:18-21. I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts, For what happens to the children of aman and what happens to the beasts ins the same.; as one dies so dies the other. They all have the same breath and man has no advantage over the beasts for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are form the dust, and to dust all return. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upwards and the spirit of the best goes down into the earth. I have adapted this passage to explore the \'testing\' of \'children of the earth\' via one child\'s perspective. In my story we see a child struggling to care for an adult who is fighting illness, fighting against death. The child goes on a journey of discovering that in death there is comfort and understanding and parity with all living creatures. There is a \'time for everything\' (3:1:vs1) In tending to this dead creature, a space opens in her to accept death, to break a the cycle of familial distress, and therefore live authentically herself.