Parents' Guide to Evelyn

EVELYN (pronounced "EEv-lin") is an intensely personal film by award-winning documentarian Orlando von Einsiedel, made in his attempt to give himself and his remaining family a setting in which to talk about what they've avoided for 13 years: the suicide of his younger brother Evelyn. His divorced parents individually join Orlando and his younger siblings, Robin and Gwennie, for different legs of the month-long trek across lush, stark, beautiful rural Britain, from Scotland to London. A camera crew records their confessions of guilt, remembrances, incomprehension, and enduring pain. At times, old family conflicts arise. His mother, who raised the kids, walks for one part, then leaves, and the dad, who seems distant, self-absorbed, and insensitive, arrives with his wife to walk for a bit, immediately losing his temper over the behavior of a waiter in a restaurant. Evelyn's best friends join for a while, and one confronts Orlando for continuing to avoid exploring and communicating his own feelings and instead asking others to express theirs. Orlando, who devised the project to address his own inability to speak with anyone about his brother, confides in curious strangers encountered along the way. They ask about the film crew, and each encounter reveals how others, too, have been touched by similar tragedy. One man explains he's recently lost his mother. Another hiker is escaping her father's wake with a little outing. Another man is so moved by Orlando and his siblings that he hugs them all and gives them his card, hoping they'll stay in touch.