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The Insatiable Moon

December 08 2010
SIFA Fireside holds fundraiser with New Zealand film

 

The Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust sponsored a preview screening of The Insatiable Moon at Cineworld in Birmingham on 18 October. The film will be on general release from January 2011.

The film, set in New Zealand, centres on a Maori man named Arthur, a former psychiatric patient living in a community care hostel. He proclaims himself to be the Second Son of God who is destined to father a child with the "Queen of Heaven".

The Insatiable Moon documents the developing relationship between Arthur and a social worker called Margaret, whom he believes is his 'Queen'. This scenario is played out against the backdrop of Arthur's hostel being threatened with closure due to the pressure of a vicious media frenzy. Rather than emphasising Arthur's mental health issues, however, this crisis draws out his compassion, his efforts to defend the hostel and his fellow residents, and his unquestioning forgiveness of the hostel's opponents.

After enduring over 10 years of funding problems and filming issues (James Nesbitt and Timothy Spall were originally lined up as the film's big names), The Insatiable Moon has emerged as a wonderfully engrossing piece of cinema. It lacks the glitz and the star attraction of Hollywood: it was shot in five weeks on a budget of just under half a million dollars, with a cast and crew native to New Zealand. Far from being shortcomings, however, these details reinforce the sometimes gritty but often upliftingly honest account of what it means to be marginalised in a modern society, lending the film an aura of authenticity rarely found in high-budget, sentimental Hollywood productions.

The Insatiable Moon will make you think, talk and laugh, and may even make you cry, but most importantly it will force you to consider the issues of mental health and homelessness, and will challenge your own and society's perceptions. William West, a reader who attended the preview screening, said he "would recommend that anyone who has ever worked with or been affected by mental health or homelessness - and the vast majority of the general public - should see this film. It will take you on an emotional journey through the twists and turns of an unseen world." Blue Hippo Media gave a DVD of the film to Birmingham's SIFA Fireside so they could show it at a fundraising event on 28 November.

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