HEIDI GREENSMITH’S drama WINTER was well-received by the audience and critics at the Glasgow Film Festival last week. Despite being unable to attend the UK premiere of her film, she spoke to us about it, the important themes discussed, and the response to WINTER.
Winter follows Woods, a man who’s life has fallen apart after the murder of his wife. He struggles to keep himself and his family together as his illness and his alcohol addiction take over his life. Woods’s eldest son Tom is trying to fix his family situation in order to get his younger brother Max out of care.
The film can hit a nerve in anyone who has any history or knows someone who has had mental health issues. Heidi initially got the idea from a mixture of sources, including her own personal life:
“My mum died and my dad took it very badly in a similar way to Woods – not exactly. There’s lots of kids in our family, I’m one of seven, and we were all really shocked by what he did and how he handled it and it was a real eye-opener.”
Heidi also took inspiration from an article she read about an artist with mental health issues:
“I read an article about an artist who had suffered a trauma-induced sort of Schizophrenia, and his art had become better… he thought his art was better since he had suffered this sort of mental illness. I thought that was really interesting, so that made the character an artist. So, there was a mixture of personal and reading this article.”
A sizable part of Winter’s story is Woods’ son trying to find his father an appropriate method of help and care. His father is reluctant about speaking to psychiatrists and Heidi believes the lack of desire to talk about feelings is an issue that has besieged men for generations:
“I’ve got three boys of my own and we always encourage them to about how they feel about things. I’m hoping that these days we encourage men and boys to talk much more openly about their emotions so that they don’t boil it up and then have any kind of mental health issues because of it. It seems to be the sort of root cause.”
Heidi has received a lot of feedback about Winter from people who have either suffered or are close to someone suffering from a type of mental health issue. One of the strongest aspects of Winter was the way in which the illness was portrayed. The film did not sensationalise Woods’ trauma and made his symptoms appear realistic – this is something that a lot of people related to:
“They want to tell me about their experience and how they felt when they watched Winter… Every single person who has contacted me has felt that the subject matter was handled sensitively and that they were able to relate to it.”
Tommy Flanagan’s gives a strong lead performance in Winter, but he was not even considered by Heidi initially:
 “When my casting director suggested him, I looked back at his work… He’s got such an emotional range. He’s such a wonderful actor… He felt so comfortable being Woods that I think he tapped into his own pain that he hadn’t been able to in other roles because he hadn’t been given that kind of emotional character to play.”Â
So far, Winter has received a lot of positive reviews and feedback, something which Heidi hopes will continue. After the premier in Glasgow, she believes there was a lot more coverage of the film particularly with it being Tommy Flanagan’s hometown, and she is pleasantly surprised to see it got such a warm response at the festival:
“You don’t know until the first person sees it and then the next person sees it, then the audience sees it, then a festival sees it. You just have no idea how it’s going to come across, especially when you’re a writer and a director! I’m just so pleased that people are relating to it and getting something out of it.”Â
