IVAN KAVANAGH'S story is one of the odder ones in Irish film. Over the last few years, largely ignored by media and distributors, he has somehow managed to cobble together four low-budget features. The most recent, the domestic melodrama Our Wonderful Home, offered clear signs of burgeoning potential.

Now, with this utterly draining, artistically brave film, Kavanagh emerges as film-maker of undeniable substance. Not all of his gambles pay off, but, when the credits roll, you know you’ve sat through something out of the ordinary.

The Fading Lightconcerns the slow, ghastly death of a middle- aged mother (Bibi Larrson). As the disease begins to claw away at the unfortunate woman's brain and body, her two daughters – one a successful businesswoman (Valene Kane), the other a struggling actor (Emma Eliza Regan) – return home to care for her and to consider the future of their mentally disabled brother.

A medic arrives to discuss various unattractive palliative measures. The sisters make an attempt to tell their confused brother the awful truth. In one barely endurable sequence, we watch as the mother’s mind disintegrates and she begins firing surreal obscenities at her children.

It takes guts to enter such Bergmanesque territory, but, for the most part, Kavanagh and his team rise to the challenge. Shot in glacial colours by Colin Downey, this defiantly unsentimental film never falters from staring suffering stubbornly in the face.

It seems unjust to single out any of the consistently excellent performances, but, offered a part that could easily encourage facile grandstanding, Patrick O’Donnell is remarkably disciplined as the adult son with learning difficulties.

The film is not perfect. There is at least one too many catastrophes. An unsympathetic male in-law is written as a panto villain. The wind occasionally howls its way into pathetic fallacy territory. But, though harrowing to endure, The Fading Light(recent winner of the Dublin Film Critics Circle prize for best Irish film at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival) remains a work of brain-rattling assurance from a singularly gifted director. Just don't go expecting laughs.

THE FADING LIGHT
Directed by Ivan Kavanagh. Starring Bibi Larrson, Valene Kane, Patrick O'Donnell, Emma Eliza Regan, Cillian Roche, Jodie Boyle Club, IFI, Dublin, 71 min