Unfinished Business is a short poetic documentary filmed at Astley Castle – a historic property in Warwickshire. We spent three days here and made this film as poetic response to the location. The resulting film is a conversation with the space of the Astley. Two queens of England lived here in the 1500s (Henry VIII’s grandmother and great-grandmother). George Eliot lived locally and the castle is the setting for one of her stories. It has been a hospital for soldiers in World War 2 and in the 1970s it was gutted by fire. By the turn of the century it was a ragged masonry shell. In 2011 Astley Castle was restored and the modern building won the RIBA Sterling Prize for architecture. The building is a palimpsest with the layers of time visible for all to see with the new building is grafted directly onto the old. Unfinished Business treats the property as lead character, layering histories, voices, poetry and sound inspired by the castle. We wanted the film to be a palimpsest reflecting the nature of Astley Castle. The poetry was written and music recorded on site and the edit began in the ruins of the castle. Unfinished Business is a conversation with the building but also with the past and the future.

“Master of Art” Film Festival 2026 – Online edition