Distant Voices, Still Lives

‘Pete Postlethwaite is the autocratic, hypnotic patriarch of a post-war Liverpool working-class family. The rest of the family struggle in his shadow. Extraordinarily, they can only express themselves through songs, persistent seams of feeling through the beautifully-realised bleakness. ‘Long, stately shots combine with impassioned performances to create a visual tour de force unmatched elsewhere in British cinema…this film is a masterpiece.’ (Andrew Pulver, The Guardian)