Thinking About Sleep is an intimate story about loss, the sense of complete disorientation the first time you experience a death. The film follows a close-knit group of friends over the course of a night following an unexpected suicide.
All six 20-somethings are isolated by their grief. The enormity of Robert’s loss, the sense of betrayal, guilt and discomfort they are all left with, is overwhelming.
But Kate alone feels the weight of a guilty secret. It is she who is entrusted with the suicide note, and who in the dead of night, retraces Robert’s steps back to the over-bridge he jumped from.
Thinking About Sleep is based on a short story by award-winning New Zealand writer, Emily Perkins. It was published in a volume of short stories by Perkins entitled, Not Her Real Name, which has won bestseller status and critical acclaim in the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
Not Her Real Name has won two major book awards:
Best First Fiction prize, 1996 Montana Book Awards (NZ)
1997 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize (UK)
