The New Directors section of the San Sebastián International Film Festival has hosted the premiere of Florid, the first feature by British filmmaker Billy Lumby, which unfolds as a sensory, immersive journey into the mind of Jamal, a young man who lives each day with a chorus of voices in his head that he strives to keep under control.

We first meet our protagonist in the block of flats where he lives, a supported-housing facility for people with mental-health issues. Almost immediately, we witness Jamal’s encounter with Kyla, a woman who has just moved in and who quickly piques the young man’s interest. Jamal and Kyla are the only characters played by professional actors, namely Jonathan Jules and Saskia Chana, both delivering strong turns and fully inhabiting their roles. It’s worth highlighting the monumental work of the former, as much of the film rests on his shoulders. Jules’s commitment is absolute, and the character he builds - whose side we scarcely leave throughout the running time - radiates truth and closeness. Conveying the anguish and isolation experienced by a person diagnosed with schizophrenia is no easy task. Thanks to the lead actor’s dedication, but also to the director’s choices in terms of editing and cinematography, Florid becomes a full immersion in the deepest reaches of a human being’s psychic suffering.

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The journey Lumby portrays is harrowing and demanding. It’s clear that the issues of mental health, the care received by those living with such conditions and the way the system coordinates to try to offer help are topics the director knows and has researched thoroughly. The film uses real locations and benefits from the collaboration of healthcare professionals and patients so that the feeling of reality becomes more than just that - a feeling. And although, amid the harshness and violence Jamal endures along the way, we may at times long for a little light and levity as viewers, it’s equally true that the movie never ceases to feel humane, keeping our interest in its protagonist’s fate intact.

In the end, Florid works to perfection as a rigorous, raw and deeply empathetic portrait of a man whose existence is conditioned by his mental fragility, but also - and perhaps most interestingly - by the limitations of those around him when it comes to understanding his circumstances and making his painful life more bearable. Though we may feel exhausted and a little battered and bruised by the demanding path travelled here, the lingering feeling after the screening is that of having witnessed an authentic story, one that closely resembles the reality many people around us experience every day. It's a dark reality that threatens to become unbearable, but where hope can ultimately blossom.

Florid is a production by the UK’s Atar Studios and Joi Productions, in co-production with Sweden’s Film i Väst and Filmgate.