Irish director Ken Wardrop said he has gone on "a much deeper journey" with his new film So This Is Christmas, saying it will "stay with me for a very, very long time".
The documentary, which is equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking, follows five ordinary people from small towns in Ireland as they navigate the often overwhelming festive period. Themes of loneliness, grief, financial difficulties and mental health struggles pervade, and each story is handled with utter sensitivity and care.
Beautifully and vividly rendered in 35mm film, the documentary is incredibly moving, empathetic and peppered with moments of humour and hope. Wardrop, known for his acclaimed films His & Hers, Mom & Me and Making The Grade, said he had the idea for a Christmas movie for "quite some time".
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, the Portarlington-born documentary filmmaker said with a laugh: "The word Christmas conjures up great potential for producers. I think they were expecting a Christmas hit or something!"
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The resulting documentary is far from a jolly jaunt through the "most wonderful time of the year". This was informed by Wardrop's own experiences of Christmas as a child, and by his observations of how the festive season has become utterly commercialised.
The director had a "complicated" relationship with Christmas growing up.
"When I was 12, my granny passed away and she was living with us at the time, and she was very, very close to my mum," he said. "So it really impacted our lives and Christmases for quite a few years after that because [of] remembering Granny and obviously mum was sad."
Wardrop shared a few more of reasons he decided to tackle this subject: "One particular person that’s very close to me is a single mum and I know she struggles financially and the pressure she puts herself under coming up to Christmas.
"In fact, she'll start saving in June, July in these Christmas clubs. And everything becomes about making Christmas the best one ever. Invariably it never hits the height or the expectations.
"And then, of course, with all the stress building up around this, it is it can be actually quite chaotic and very miserable.
"It can be a perfect storm and it can trigger so many of those issues that we can face, so I thought we needed to see stand back from it and try to find a way in.
"We all talk about the commercialization of Christmas. But it's got away from us! It is like a juggernaut now. The vast majority of people would love to pull it back and rein it back a little bit, but it's impossible. The marketeers have won the day."
The director continued of his own issues coming up to the festive season: "I have mental health struggles as so many of us do. But this year I lost my mum, so I'm going to have my own struggles in the lead up and then I’m going to have grief flare on top of that."
Given his own reservations about Christmas, Wardrop was uniquely placed to explore his subject's struggles. The resulting piece of work is stunningly intimate, a compliment he was very encouraged by.
"I have to say that's lovely to hear, because we had shot on 35mm film so there was a crew of eight of us," he detailed. "Normally, I'd be two, there would be me and the sound person. But we had eight people and the assistant camera would run in with his tape measure up to the person's eye! [for the focus]
"I would have got frustrated at times. How am I going to do this? Why did I shoot on 35 millimeter? I just want to be there with them!"
Wardrop said the intimacy portrayed on screen was "also down to the wonderful people on the crew".
"When I say that the participants became friends, we all became friends during the process and the films I've made in the past I've had a cast of hundreds," he explained.
"I tend to have a lot more, this the first time I've ever made a film with only five characters.
"So I have gone on a much deeper journey myself in this film and you know it has really affected me and it will stay with me for a very, very long time."
The filmmaker described the challenges of working with 35mm film, which is a much more expensive, but aesthetically far more pleasing, option than shooting digitally.
"35 millimeter is beautiful like to work with but there are constraints behind it because you only have so much film stock," he said.
"It has these constraints, but you feel like you're a proper filmmaker! Obviously, if you're on digital, you can keep rolling.
"But on 35mm you have to be very precise and structured and it's kind of like you're making a film as opposed to just watching someone on phones because you're a decision maker and being creative. I think it was one of the really good decisions we made."
While there are emotionally devastating scenes in So This Is Christmas, the film concludes on a beautiful, hopeful note.
Jason, a widower and father of two young boys, is preparing to celebrate the family's first Christmas without his wife. He is a rock to his sons and is trying to give them the best experience possible, despite the very sad circumstances.
"Time is the greatest present you can give or receive," he says simply and poignantly.
"That was what I took away from the film personally," Wardrop said. "There is always hope, there is always a light through the crack.
"His message was so powerful to me because I'm turning 50 this year and it’s a new decade, it said to me, the best can be ahead because I have time on my side.
"Once you have time you have hope because things can happen, you can affect change. Someone’s luck can change. I thought that was beautiful."
So This Is Christmas is out in cinemas now.
