Dale Corlett’s debut feature is a crisp, coherent study of city life, where family loyalties, social mores and secret dreams vie for position in the lives of two unconnected, emotionally scarred characters. Both crippled by personal grief and loneliness after a recent bereavement, Joe and Kayla could be the perfect match for one another. Their lives run in parallel, they share many coincidences, and their physical paths cross often. Yet, frustratingly, they continually fail to meet. After the death of his father, manual worker Joe (Bryan Larkin) wants desperately to ease the burden of debt on his grieving mother, but finds that his factory income will never be quite enough to make a difference. Meanwhile, sad and dejected after the death of her baby, Kayla (Anna Kerth) works as a waitress in the local cafe, where she dreams of a career writing verses for greeting cards, whilst contending with a nasty, abusive boyfriend and a meanspirited boss. As they each struggle with their own personal troubles, their demons threaten to take hold and their mirrored lives simultaneously spiral into darker, more dangerous worlds. The screenplay, which director Dale Corlett co-wrote with lead actor Larkin, cleverly employs a sparse, effective use of dialogue. This refreshing lack of verbosity lends the finished film an unencumbered edge and adds to the stillness achieved by the deliberately measured pacing. Featuring a menacing turn by acclaimed actor of stage and screen Kenneth Cranham as crime boss Bill Cullen, the performances are impressive throughout. Corlett’s direction is confident, showing clear ease with his actors, whilst driving the subtleties of the narrative towards their final conclusion. The well-developed script and absorbing performances are underpinned by the kind of stark, atmospheric cinematography (by George Geddes) that exposes genuine emotion and injects a raw honesty into the work. Set in Glasgow, this is an everyday story of fractured lives and troubled souls that could feasibly take place in any big city, where strange coincidences are frequent but – owing to the fast pace of city life – will often go unnoticed.