G♭ (2022)

At a time when there is much debate about people making their own choices about “end of life” decisions, this is quite a poignant story of an elderly cellist (Richard Wilson) who has had multiple strokes and who has been left alone following the death of his husband. Unable to do little but sit in his care home chair being fed pills from day to day, he decides to go on Grindr and get himself a young playmate. When he (Aled ap Steffan) arrives, though, he turns out to be a music student who appreciates the music playing in the room and the man who played it. It quickly transpires that sex isn’t on the old man’s mind, but an entirely different sort of gratification - and this presents his new young friend with quite a moral conundrum. The haunting score here and the darkly lit room adds much to a potently simple effort from Wilson as he epitomises a sentient man whose body has largely given up on him. He is perfectly capable of making a rational choice about his own future but is constrained by societal expectations that he will only leave his room again in a box - and only once the drugs have stopped working. It’s simplistic, sure, and at not even twenty minutes the conclusion does feel a bit rushed, but it does shine a powerful light on the empowerment of people to determine their own future. It’s touching food for thought.