This concept has slept in my mind since I was a child when our pastor told us that a hand in a glove can be compared to the soul within a body. While the hand is there, the glove is ‘alive’, to all appearances, and can perform all kinds of useful tasks.
But when the soul or hand leaves, the glove that housed it is lifeless, although on the outside it looks much the same in many ways. The loving respect for the vacated body is not misplaced, but it is the presence of our loved one that is so very missing, as we pour our love out to the still form remaining.
My aim is to let people consider… what is the afterlife like, if there is one? It may bring comfort and confidence for that final, inevitable transition. The Tibetans are certainly very matter-of-fact about this, and treat the new incarnation of a departed soul as an important event, with rigorous tests to prove that the dear departed is now the happy arrival.
The movie doesn’t try to be overly spiritual but leans more towards dark humour with a sprinkle of light-hearted moments.
Allegra (limp hand in satin glove) is dying, surrounded by her mother Frances (hand in knitted grey glove), and sister Dottie (hand in a striped knitted glove) as well as Dottie’s grand-kids (little twin mittens).
Her ex, Horatio, (biker’s glove) and their mutual lover Tendai (purple rally glove) enter and tussle to be near Allegra.
The Narrator dishes juicy gossip on everyone’s best kept secrets and various facts of which they are blissfully ignorant.
Allegra dies. The single note of the heart monitor blends into a beautiful, joyful aria. As a youthful hand, she emerges through her glove and leaves as the doctor (surgical glove) appears and pronounces her dead. She is bewildered when he doesn’t take any notice of her as a hand.
All grieve.
At the memorial service, Allegra tries to interact with them all without success, before following the twins to the casket and fully realising she’s ‘dead’, on seeing the folded glove there. The twins drop unflattering drawings of her onto her body and dash back to their granny, Dottie.
Her shaman (hand in a fingerless glove) greets Allegra. The gathering dances joyfully to thumping African music except for her mother and sister, who cringe.
Allegra fondly interacts with her two ex’s at the casket as well, noting Tendai’s tender moving aside of the drawings. They are of course unaware of her.
She rises up into the air, trying out her amazing new state of being, circles the space and lands again.
Her spirit, (sparkly hand) embraces Allegra. The gossipy Narrator reveals herself as Allegra’s spirit, announcing ‘We’ll be off then…’ and they ascend together and disappear through the ceiling, the two hands joined like a dove.
All fades to white, the music echoing away.
The initial idea is to film hands in gloves performing all the actions in the movie. There is no dialogue except for moans, coughs, sobs and the murmur of voices during the service. Dialogue is supplanted by mimed action and music, and a narrator describes events known and unknown in the lives of the characters, a sardonic gossip satisfying our curiosity about people in the scene. Allegra soon knows much more than she used to, or ever suspected, about her nearest and dearest.
Apart from the hospital scene which takes places and locations
in a high-end clinic, the ideal setting for the funeral service is Phakalane, in Hout Bay, Cape Town, where I was honoured and grateful to have been allowed to film the background for the memorial service here.