“The Way of All Flesh” by Prosper Unger-Hamilton

Apr 18

Beyond the Short Official Premiere

This is a film about regret, desperation and inevitability. The digging of a giant hole is a visual metaphor for the futile attempt to avoid fate. I wanted to show how the finality of death is something that cannot be bargained with. Only through acceptance can we gain any sort of control, and even then there may be others who have more control than us.

“The Way of All Flesh” was inspired by a sequence from the short story Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad by M. R. James. A BBC adaptation of this work was shot in 1968, on the eerie beaches of the East English coast. For our production we returned to the same beach, partly as an homage to the 1968 adaptation, and partly because its distinctive wooden walls are so important to the narrative. This film is my attempt to bring the terrifying power of James’ writing into a new and different era.