Trilogy

This trilogy of short films by gay Liverpool-born director Terence Davies explores the life of his fictional alter ego, a man named Robert Tucker. In the first section, ‘Children’ (1976), we learn of Robert Tucker’s childhood at his strict all-boys school and his harsh, loveless and often violent home. The film closes showing the mixed emotions felt by Tucker as his father dies from laughing as the coffin is placed in the hearse, standing silently by the graveside, to sobbing uncontrollably. In the second section, ‘Madonna and Child’ (1980), Robert Tucker is a miserable office worker living with his mother where his closeted homosexuality is at odds with his strict Catholicism. Finally, in ‘Death and Transfiguration’ (1983) Tucker has to deal with the death of his mother and his own impending death. With his end approaching he remembers events from throughout his life. Drawing on his experiences growing up in Liverpool as a gay man and a Catholic, Davies authentically tells the truly upsetting story of his fictional alter ego, Robert Tucker.