A Want In Her, Myrid Carten's immersive, deeply personal and inventive debut feature film, sees the Donegal artist turn the lens on her fractured family - torn apart by grief, a contested inheritance and her mother Nuala’s struggle with alcoholism and mental illness.
This is unlike any documentary you’ve ever seen before.
Weaving intimate, increasingly challenging conversations with her family with gorgeously sweeping, cinematic 16mm film footage of the beautiful, barren Donegal landscape, charming, strangely prescient camcorder tapes from her childhood and shots of her work as a visual artist - the film takes a looping, non-linear examination of the effects of addiction on those closest to you.
These are not easy themes but Carten handles them with a deft touch, with moments of dark humour and an overriding sense of love and respect for those on the other side of the lens. It's powerful stuff.
At the outset of the film, Nuala's disappearance is the catalyst for Myrid returning home to Donegal from London to search for her and grapple with the weight of an increasingly fraught family dynamic.
Her uncle Danny, who also suffers from mental health issues, is squatting in an overgrown caravan on his brother Kevin’s land, while Kevin, who solely inherited the land and family home after their mother’s death, is beginning to crack under the pressure of caring for his sister.
At its heart, A Want In Her grapples with the idea of loving someone without losing yourself in the process, and doesn't offer any pat answers to the thorny questions it poses.
