Robert and his two children Sam and Kate head deep into the Norfolk countryside to visit their elderly grandmother, Hannah, but when they arrive they find she has befriended a mysterious loner named Joe. Initially suspicious, Robert struggles to understand the unlikely friendship and tries to re-take his position at the head of the family. Meanwhile the rest of the group respond to Joe in their own way, and end up seeing one-another in a new light.

Shot in a very traditional style, Shadows in the Sun is a drama of old that shuns the present trends for gritty, handheld action and chooses instead to slowly sink you into the family life on screen through a series of subtle performances inspired by a largely unspoken family crisis. It’s nostalgic and ponderous, and a great antidote for those who are tired of being shaken around council estates to watch the lives of young drug dealers.

A big risk is that the film will seem overly sentimental. Based on childhood experiences of writer/director David Rocksavage (or David Cholmondeley, 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley to use his real name) and dotted with loving shots of the lush Norfolk countryside and its ever-changing skies, there must have been considerable urges to let the landscape do the talking. And with veteran actress Jean Simmons coaxed back on screen for the role of elderly grandmother Hannah, giving her a lot of screen time to indicate the influence of the elderly matriarch must have been another temptation. But to the credit of Mr. Rocksavage (it only seems fair to use his screen name) and his co-writer Margaret Glover, they have managed to balance these temptations and create a group of well-rounded characters whose stories expose themselves with equal levels of detail and nuance.

Similarly, DoP Milton Kam’s brave decision to avoid hand-held grit to submerge the audience in the tale has paid off. It might not be a popular decision among current cinema-goers, or with David Rocksavage whose directing time will have been heavily reduced by the set-up time required for the chosen style, but it fits the mood of the story perfectly. The potential for becoming too languid and sentimental is still there, but some fast editing works well to prevent it becoming a major problem.

What stands out most about Shadows in The Sun is that it tells its story in its own way. There is no nod to cinematic trends of the time and no obvious need to accommodate what studios or film funds think the public want. This makes for a refreshing change from the current film fare, but mainly for fans of traditional British drama.