It has been a year since Clare’s ex-husband, Daniel, died, but how do you grieve a person you hate as well as love? And what do you do with the memories and objects left behind?
Lost Property explores the unfinished business and fraught emotions that follow a sudden death. Movingly played by Julie Cox, bereaved ex-wife Clare experiences ‘disenfranchised grief’, a term that describes the complicated emotions that follow losses that aren’t openly acknowledged, socially supported or publicly mourned. Shot through with flashbacks of a funeral, the film follows Clare as she sends her daughter (Anna Rømcke Høiseth) back to university and goes to visit Daniel’s second wife (Danielle Bjelic).
While grief may be a form of love, the film suggests that it is also bound up with other, less straightforward emotions, reminding us of our connections to and estrangements from our past and the ties that bind.
The film was written by Lesel Dawson, co-directed by Jimmy Hay and Natasha Rosling, and produced by Sara Turner. It was shot in Bristol, UK, and supported by the Brigstow Institute and the University of Bristol.
Want to know more about the film and its creation? Have a look at the Good Grief Festival panel discussion with director Hay, actor Cox and writer Dawson. You can also read the academic article: Dawson, L., Hay, J. and Rosling, N. (2021) ‘Therapeutic creativity and the lived experience of grief in the collaborative fiction film Lost Property’. Research for All, 5 (2), 227-45., 5 (2), 227-45.