«Oh, Little Spark!» by Charlie Lyon Budden

At a time in history when the ghosts of a past to be forgotten return to destroy peace, which is no longer a foregone condition between neighboring peoples, and the duty to remember becomes ever more urgent, a film like “A Little Spark” resonates with meanings that are intimate and deep, individual and universal.

The affection between a young English boy and his grandmother, Polish by birth, is tested when he insists that she tell him something about her youth, about wartime, that she would rather not remember.
Increasingly reticent, the tension between the two erupts when further truths come to light.

The young director tells in an enclosed setting, now asphyxiated now cozy, an emotional story without resorting to patheticism, but builds tension that deflates, then turns into painful tenderness.
The two characters, different and inextricably linked, manage to find a way to communicate by overcoming pain and fear, and their story is realistic and at the same time symbolic.
As the title suggests, an emotion is a small light that is kindled within. In this sense, the work of Director of Photography Red Williams is remarkable, together with the young director immerses us in atmospheres of deep warmth and almost dreaminess, managing to make this meeting between two worlds and the painful secret that binds them even more poignant.

But in the end, of the painful past that one has tried to forget, the importance of the memory remains, a light that is destined not to go out.