About Read to Me

All good love stories need a touch of fantasy. I finally had time to catch up with director Dan Horrigan’s short film, Read to Me, which can be described as a crime drama romance, or maybe a romantic crime story, mixing as it does a gothic sensibility with everyday realism. It’s about Rolan, a dyslexic convicted criminal who on his first day in Strangeways receives a letter which he struggles to read. So he turns to Sabina, the prison psychologist, for help. As he does so he tells us, with linguistic flourishes worthy of Edgar Allen Poe, about his chance meeting with Zara, a young mother who has a three-year-old child, and the tarot reading he did for her at the local fair. And its consequences. With its rapid storytelling and moments of magic, this is a short but beautiful watch, with engaging and convincing performances from the cast. Written by Horrigan from a story by Sarah Jennings and himself, it combines imaginative leaps with humorous asides, and stars Christopher Sherwood (Rolan), Rosie Steel (Zara), and Nathalia Campbell Smith (Sabina). Louis Jordan plays the villainous Carl. Music by Franc Cinelli. This brief study of sacrifice, fear and love is well worth a watch.

© Aleks Sierz

• Read to Me trailer.

Christopher Sherwood crime Dan Horrigan fear film Franc Cinelli gothic Louis Jordan love narrative Nathalia Campbell-Smith prison Read to Me Rosie Steel Sarah Jennings social realism storytelling