The Terence Davies Trilogy

In three short films made over the course of seven years, Terence Davies traces the childhood, life, and death of his alter ego, a closeted gay man named Robert Tucker. In CHILDREN, Robert reflects on his youth, remembering the bullying he experienced in his rigid Catholic school and the death of his abusive father; in MADONNA AND CHILD, the adult Robert works an unsatisfying office job, seeking out sexual encounters while being tormented by Catholic guilt and caring for his mother; and in DEATH AND TRANSFIGURATION, the elderly Robert looks back on the death of his mother while facing his own mortality. Suffused with the longing and loneliness of queer outsiderhood, these striking films display the impressionistic visual style and piercing emotional sensitivity that would make Davies one of the great cinematic poets of our time.