"Most families come to terms with their history either by talking about or not talking about it - I make a public statement. " Director Terence Davies, arguably one of the most ambitious and most painstaking craftsmen at work in British films of the Eighties and Nineties, has turned personal memories of his family upbringing in Liverpool of the Forties and Fifties into a remarkable debut feature that won plaudits and kudos wherever shown. Christenings, weddings and a funeral are the highlights for a family dominated by a brutal patriarch, who turns the lives of his wife and children into a bleak, endless nightmare. "Some of my family have seen the film. It opened up a lot of wounds and they cried" says Davies. "But my mother said, 'He's told the truth', which I have. " It's actually two films in one, with 'Still Lives' shot two years after 'Distant Voices', with the same cast but different technicians. But they run together as a seamless labour of love that bears favourable comparison with other British period dramas released around the same time, such as 'Hope and Glory' and 'Wish You Were Here'.

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