About

The Annihilation of Fish is a warm-hearted love story by Charles Burnett exploring themes of ageing, mental illness, and race. When Jamaican widower Fish (James Earl Jones) is released from a psychiatric hospital, he and his internal demon, Hank, move in as lodgers with the sardonic Mrs Muldroone (Margot Kidder). Fellow lodger Poinsettia (Lynn Redgrave) is dealing with her own challenges, not least a failed romance with the long-dead composer Giacomo Puccini. As Poinsettia and Fish grow closer, they begin to enter each other’s inner worlds.

Rich with extraordinary physical performances and textured on-screen chemistry, Burnett’s drama languished largely unseen for almost 25 years after nervous distributors and a labyrinthine bureaucracy kept it in limbo. Newly restored in 4K and now enjoying the acclaim it deserved upon its premiere, this whimsical yet sincere feature film adds yet another texture to Burnett’s varied oeuvre.

Ages 15+