Half the World is Sleeping

Synopsis : Elsa Potts is a mother, grandmother and widow. She has lived a colourful and full life that is slowly being taken from her. Elsa has mid-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Often her world is confusing and chaotic, her only constant being an old family heirloom; a compass from the First World War that belonged to Elsa’s grandfather. Fixated on the compass, Elsa believes it to be lost somewhere in the elevator of her residential building block. There, she stands watch, asking daily commuters for assistance in locating the object. Most people indulge her delusions, including Elsa’s daughter Sarah and her son Oscar, both of whom Elsa does not recognise. However youngest son, Ian is not so forgiving of his mother’s condition and enlists Sarah to help forcibly remove her from the elevator. Elsa panics and lashes out, unknowingly, at her own children. It is only when eldest son James arrives, still fresh in Elsa’s memories, that she abandons her post, leaving her family struggling in her wake.