Nostalgie

A 1980s popstar receives a surprising invitation to perform, pulling him out of musical retirement and into a moral dilemma.

One-hit-wonder merchant “Drew Lord Haig” (Aiden Gillen) is surprised to be invited to play at a gig in Belfast for a group of working folks celebrating their centenary. Centenary of what? Well he takes the ferry across and is soon met by a rather subdued crowd who remain fairly non-committal until he starts off with his rather downbeat B-side called “Nostalgie”. They go wild. They know all the words and they even demand a few encores. The word “demand” and the manner of their request sets his teeth a little on edge as he discovers just who these people are and of the significance of his throw-away dirge to something altogether more menacing, conflicting and suffice to say his sailing back home makes him realise that just because he wrote the tune with a certain message in mind, it doesn’t mean that is the message it will be remembered for - in that city, at any rate. Gillen works really quite well here as he manages to takes an audience through a mini-rollercoaster of emotions with this twenty minute feature. With little more than conversational dialogue, and only a little bit of humour, much is left to what we can see and interpret on our own as "Drew" comes to appreciate that his fee comes with strings that maybe aren’t so acceptable. Simple yet thoughtful, and worth a watch.