A project originally conceived as a gallery installation, artist and filmmaker Steven Eastwood followed four individuals living with terminal illness being supported by the Earl Mountbatten Hospice in Newport. The participants each agreed to be filmed during the private and family-orientated last months of their lives up until and including the moment of their deaths.

Having been described as “taboo-breaking”, the film shows with care and sensitivity what happens to the body during the process of dying, including a seven-minute scene in which one of the protagonist’s deaths is captured on film. Something rarely seen in documentary but witnessed by people around the world daily, Island creates an intimate portrait of the end of life.