Ray & Liz

Birmingham, England. The 1980s. In a run down, smoke filled flat where the wallpaper is peeling off the walls, Jason and Richard grow up with their booze-drenched dad Ray and hot-tempered mum Liz. Ray and Liz are not likely to win any awards for their parenting (the film, on the other hand, has won several international awards already). Using his upbringing and his past as an art photographer as a basis, Richard Billingham has made a fierce and personal coming-of-age story. The film retells lots of different episodes from his childhood and youth, with pain, hopelessness, and tragedy – and thankfully, with humour.

Cinematographer Daniel Landin has previously filmed for example Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin (2013). The collaboration between him and Billingham results in a work where style and narrative really complement each other. Billingham’s experience as a still photographer shines through, as framing and close ups are used in an exemplary manner. They have also shot the film on 16mm, which adds its own unmistakeable texture to the images. Every little detail reveals a little bit more about what it was truly like, growing up in this setting; you can practically feel the smoke in your eyes, or the stench of booze in your nostrils. Painful, yet beautiful!