Working as an expansion of her 2020 short Kathleen Was Here, the debut feature by Eva Birthistle is a sympathetic character study examining the effects of “ageing out” of the care system. At the centre of Kathleen Is Here, which recently had its world premiere as part of the Raindance Film Festival, is Hazel Doupe’s performance as the eponymous protagonist, which holds together this moving piece of work.

In the (fictional) Irish town of Kilcaren, 18-year-old Kathleen – whose previous life has been marked by living in a string of foster homes – is deposited at the house that she first lived in as a young child with her now deceased mum, who had been an alcoholic. Under the watchful eye of her social worker, Damian, she is forced into the adult world, getting a job at the local supermarket and trying to integrate into a society from which she seems one step removed.

An encounter with new neighbour Dee (Clare Dunner) offers Kathleen some sort of human connection and – with Dee’s husband Rory (Peter Coonan) and their young son Conor (James McGowan) – an idealised prospect of a family. But with Kathleen often retreating into a fantasy world to blunt the reality in which she lives, she finds the possibility of rejection almost impossible to take. Soon, things begin to spiral out of control as the disappointment of her past threatens to destroy her future.

Doupe initially projects an endearing, and sometimes heart-breaking, doe-eyed innocence. There’s a constant sense of naivety conveyed through a performance that is typified by stillness as Doupe makes Kathleen a constant observer of everything going on around her. But there’s a hint of energy and anger that seem ready to burst forth at any moment. The moments spent with her social worker display a more deceitful side to her persona, and her innocence is transformed into iciness. But Doupe constantly balances these elements, and always retains our sympathy and understanding as a girl who may have “aged out” but has not been given the capacity to actually grow up.

Birthistle and DoP Burschi Wojnar utilise some of the classic socialist tropes in the locations, but rather than using the typical “run-down council estate” aesthetic to denote urban decay and poverty, she uses it to indicate a world of stultifying dullness, of beige, chipped paint and curtains yellowed by cigarette smoke. Nostalgia – with some flashbacks of Kathleen’s mum shown through camcorder footage harking back to the past – is something that is painful and destructive. But Kathleen is afforded little hope if her present can only be built on a fantasy of what life should be like.

The final 15 minutes, in which events come to a melodramatic head, do threaten to tip the film into something else entirely, but the ship just about stays on course. While its message about the flaws of the care system is clear and urgent, Kathleen Is Here is ultimately a compelling examination of a character who never quite knows where she belongs.

The debut by Birthistle – also known as an actress for roles in such films as Ken Loach’s Just a Kiss [+lee también:
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Kathleen Is Here was produced by Dublin-based Treasure, which is also handling its international sales.