Shelter in Solitude

It's 2020 and the pandemic has shut down Val's bar. A country singer whose best days are behind her, she takes a job as a prison guard at the jail where her brother Dwayne (Robert Patrick) is the warden, and she's put in charge of Jackson (Peter Macon), a death row inmate with ten days left to live.

Guard and prisoner start out cold and formal, but small kindnesses and Val's stubborn efforts to make him laugh turn into an unlikely friendship with a man starved of human contact. As the execution date gets closer, Val also starts singing again.

Siobhan Fallon Hogan wrote, produced and stars in 'Shelter in Solitude', a comedy drama directed by Vibeke Muasya. The idea came from her father, a lawyer who used to tell the family stories about the prisoners he represented over the kitchen table.

Hogan is best remembered for supporting roles in 'Men in Black', 'Holes' and 'Seinfeld'. Patrick, the T-1000 from 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day', is also a producer; Macon is one of the leads in 'The Orville', and Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer in 'The Simpsons', also has a role.

Filming took place in and around Syracuse, New York, in September and October 2021, and the film won best actress and best cinematography at the 2023 Boston International Film Festival. It opened in 341 US cinemas on 6 October 2023. Reviews were mostly kind: nearly everyone praised Hogan, though a few found the mix of comedy and drama uneven.

• Comedy
• Comedy
• Drama