Synopsis
On the surface, Rachel Green has it all: a high-flying career; a strong marriage with an equally high-flying husband; two young children and a large, beautiful home in Hampstead, not far from where she grew up.
But Rachel begins to realize the fragility of her settled life as she pursues an uneasy reunion with her long-estranged brother in TESTAMENT, the feature debut of award-winning writer/director Jon Howe. With a keen
eye for the fabric of the city, Howe opens a window onto a society where the haves and the have-nots lead increasingly separate and unequal lives.
As TESTAMENT traces the mystery behind the siblings' diverging paths, it emerges as a tale of human vulnerability, as well as a tale for our modern Gilded Age. Rachel has not travelled far, geographically or materially, from her family roots. Her older brother, Jake, exists on the opposite end of the social
spectrum. A troubled, emotionally unstable alcoholic, Jake spends his days roaming London's parks, streets and subways. He is a resident at a Vauxhall hostel, but will sometimes absent himself for days on end,
sleeping in doorways and shunning human contact. It has been some 15 years since Jake has seen anyone in his family, and no one knows what has become of him.
The death of their father changes that. To Rachel's surprise, her father changed his mind about disowning his estranged son, despite their acrimonious relationship. She soon learns that family lawyers have tracked Jake to a shelter within five miles of her home, and decides to go and see him. She is greeted at the hostel by its empathetic manager Sandy. Sandy
has himself come back from the brink and understands what is and is not possible for residents like Jake. But even with Sandy's frank counsel,Rachel is unprepared for the damaged man her brother has become.
Whatever motives she might have had are complicated by Jake's diminished circumstances. Adding to Rachel's distress, tensions are mounting at home, where Ben is increasingly absent; and at work, where
she is approaching a potentially career-changing moment.Rachel can no longer be sure of anything, least of all her own decisions regarding Jake. In stepping back into Jake's life, Rachel sets in motion a
reckoning with the traumas and anguish of the past.
Can brother and sister confront that history and move forward, or are the obstacles too great?