KISS OF LIFE

Year: 2003
UK: Artificial Eye
Cast: Peter Mullan, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Millie Findlay, James E Martin, David Warner, Rosie Wiggins
Director: Emily Young
Countries: UK / France
Language: English / Serbo-Croat
UK: 86 mins
UK Certificate: 12A contains one use of strong language
UK Release Date: 2 January 2004

Synopsis

KISS OF LIFE (originally entitled HELEN OF PECKHAM) marks the debut feature of Emily Young, an exciting young British talent. A Lodz Film School graduate, Emily's previous short film, SECOND HAND, won the Cinefoundation prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1999.

KISS OF LIFE is a deeply moving journey into the heart of a family. Lithuanian actress Ingeborga Dapkunaite, best known for her role in BURNT BY THE SUN, stars as Helen, a London housewife barely coping with her two children and with her aging father (David Warner) while her husband, John (Peter Mullan), an aid-worker in Eastern Europe is away from home. Taking the children to school one morning, she is killed in a car accident. Many miles away, in war-torn Eastern Europe, John is unaware that his wife has died. Helen herself, caught in limbo between life and death, watches over her family who struggle to come to terms with the loss of their mother and the continuing absence of their father.

Shot on location in London, Croatia and Bosnia during Autumn 2002, KISS OF LIFE is dedicated to the memory of Katrin Cartlidge, who was to have played the leading role of the mother but who died tragically just before filming began.