We’re back in Sussex in the UK with another Brit film, but this week a far cry  from a corner of woodland steeped in ancient folklore that is forever England; here we’re in Newpoint, the hometown grieving young woman Lisa returns to having learned of her sister’s recent demise–but are things as simple as they seem?  Now you should know better than to ask that….

Directed by Simon Drake and co-written with Louise Hume, the admirably professional-looking Lost Angel is a low-budget production that doesn’t look it. The cast are perfect, consisting of a mere handful of characters; this actually adding emphasis to the important themes of bereavement, isolation, abandonment, grief and injustice from which a larger crew may have detracted.

Lisa (Sascha Harman) is back in her hometown following her sister Melanie’s death, which according to their aunt Sarah (Maggie Clune), who appears to be their only close relative, has been filed away neatly as a heroin-fuelled suicide; case closed. Lisa, knowing her sister was clean after kicking her drug habit, is suspicious, and though friends and family in contact with Melanie right up to her death seem accepting of the verdict and attempt to convince Lisa to do the same, she begins asking around to try and find what she feels is the truth behind what happened.

She finds an unlikely ally in Rich (Fintan Shevlin), a young Belgian who’s got problems of his own; he’s not only a bit shy, awkward, and in a country that’s not his home, he’s also dead. The victim of a hit and run some months prior, he now seems to be in some kind of limbo, at a loss as to what happens now. Does his sudden, untimely death have anything to do with Melanie’s? And is Lisa’s emotional turmoil the result of her grief, or is there something more sinister at play?

Low-budget though it may be, Lost Angel shows a polished maturity in its sensitive portrayal of the many faces of personal loss running alongside the engaging mystery of a crime thriller, neither plotline at any point becoming overwhelmed or invalidated by the other. The very human fragility in the characters of both Lisa and Rich allows the viewer to really feel not only their shared mourning for young lives cut short, but empathy in the touching bond that quickly develops between them.

The pervasive sense of loss and bewildered displacement is carried through visually in a subtle but effective way; any contact with the very few other characters seems to be in settings that are bleak, shadowy or abandoned, as if all potential or hope for better things faded long ago, leaving only remnants of that which once was positive.

While it may seem the picture I’m painting is that of a grey, depressing lament of a film, this is certainly not the case; though heartbreaking at times in their vulnerability, both lead roles remind us that they also have the resilience of youth on their side (poor Rich eternally so), as well as the determination to see things put right as far as they can be. Without giving anything away, this is demonstrated in one of the more dramatic scenes as Lost Angel nears its end, which while the more cynical may find slightly whimsical gave me, as an ever-appreciative fan of the dreamlike sequence, a decent case of goosebumps.

9 out of 10 Paranormal Investigations