Forbidden love (and it will tickle you, too!)
Sanctuary Cert: 15A 87mins HHHHH
Most people when they look at Sanctuary will not know what to expect. It is, on the face of it, a hard sell. It is a film about love, and sex, for people with intellectual disabilities. It has won numerous awards and you could be forgiven for thinking that, while this is a worthy film, you’d rather watch the latest Marvel release.
While understandable, that would be an error on your part. This homegrown film – adapted by Inside I’m Dancing writer Christian O’Reilly, from his own play commissioned by the Blue Teapot theatre company – tackles a potentially off-putting subject.
But it does so by focusing on humour as a means of making people’s experiences universally relatable.
Make no mistake: It is boneachingly funny. There are some scenes so delightfully staged, that it makes you remember what movies used to be like before Captain America (et al) colonised the cinema-going experience.
The emotional core of this story is a love between two people with intellectual disabilities, Larry (played by Kieran Coppinger) and Sophie (Charlene Kelly), who dare to dream.
As such, it achieves the remarkable feat of making you forget that these actors have serious physical and mental impediments. And for this debut director Len Collins deserves great credit.
The couple want to spend some time alone in a hotel room, in a world that says that, legally, people with intellectual disabilities don’t have the capacity to consent to sex.
In helping them achieve this, their care worker Tom (Robert Doherty) has to leave the rest of the group of his intellectually disabled charges alone in the cinema.
Some wander off – including a hilarious cameo by a dopesmoking, Dutch-Gold-swilling Rita (Jennifer Cox) – while some stay put.
All contribute to an ensemble effort that makes you think – but mostly makes you laugh. It is a triumph and may not be in cinemas long. So don’t miss out.