103 minutes – Drama
Festival release date: March 2, 2016, SXSW
Release date: December 2, 2016
Canadian distributor: Mongrel Media

Nickie Bellow (British actor Tom Cullen) is a self-destructive drifter, ever mourning the disappearance of his younger brother. Having abandoned a life of promise in his native UK, he has spent the inaugural years of adulthood drowning grief in alcohol and violence. By the 5th anniversary of his brother’s disappearance he has reached his nadir – fired from his menial job, he is poised once again for an aimless life. Then he meets Emily (Tatiana Maslany) and the two form an immediate, inseparable bond – it is love at first sight deepened by a shared sense of sorrow. Enamored with each other, they expedite the standard rituals of a ‘normal’ relationship. Drunk on the intoxication of an accelerated young love, they consume each other ravenously, accustomed to the fleeting and transitory, untrusting of permanence. After a short amount of time, his PTSD and her bipolar disorder surface complicating their new-found intimacy. They have a connection deeper than anything they could have imagined; it’s the two of them against the world. For Nickie and Emily, time does not heal all wounds, but could real love indeed conquer all?

Also see: Director & screenwriter Joey Klein talks about The Making of The Other Half.