''Eight'' (stylised as ''Ei8ht'') is a 1998 British

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

directed by

Stephen Daldry Stephen David Daldry Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 2 May 1960) is an English director and producer of film, theatre, and television. He has won three Tony Awards for his work on Broadway theatre, Broadway and an Olivie ...

, written by Tim Clague and produced by

Working Title Films Working Title Films Limited, formerly Visionensure Limited and Working Title Limited, is a British film and television production company that is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, which is itself a division of Comcast. The company was founded by ...

Plot

''Eight'' tells the story of the life of an eight-year-old football fan who has to come to terms with living in a strange new town and the loss of his father. ''Eight'' opens with a boy wearing what appears to be a homemade

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founded in ...

-shirt standing on a beach with his football shouting "My name is Jonathan and I am eight!". Jonathan has no father, but says he was "a flower person who liked pots and world peas" (the knowing adult viewer appreciates this means flower power / hippie, pot (marijuana) and world peace). Jonathan's best friend is Terry, who is a

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

-supporter. Together they watch tapes of

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...

at Terry's, since Jonathan's mum does not allow football in the house. Terry has a father that Jonathan think is "great". Jonathan has recently moved to an English coastal town. Before then he had lived in Liverpool, where his dad went regularly to the Kop. Jonathan's mum is fed up with her son's football fanaticism, and wants him to get a new hobby. Terry's father hits him when he gets angry. Terry wishes that he was Jonathan and had no father at all. Jonathan wonders what his dad's work was. He hopes that he was a train driver, a firefighter or maybe a pilot? Terry says he probably was a "stinky caretaker at a stinky school", Jonathan calls him a liar and they depart in anger. At home, alone with a football board game, Jonathan admits that he never knew his father, he died before he was born, at a football match he was watching, possibly referring to the

Hillsborough disaster The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal crowd crush at a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the tw ...

. The film ends with Jonathan sitting on the beach singing "

You'll Never Walk Alone "You'll Never Walk Alone" is a show tune from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical '' Carousel''. In the second act of the musical, Nettie Fowler, the cousin of the protagonist Julie Jordan, sings "You'll Never Walk Alone" to comfort and e ...

Awards

*Eight was nominated for the

BAFTA Award for Best Short Film The BAFTA Award for Best British Short Film is a film award presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) at the annual British Academy Film Awards. BAFTA is a British organisation that hosts annual awards shows for film, ...

in 1999.

History

''Eight'' was made through the Jerwood Foundation after Tim Clague's script (originally called "N'That") was selected to win the Jerwood Film Prize. The film was shot on location in the Bournemouth and Poole area.

External links

* 1998 short films 1998 films 1998 drama films British drama short films Films directed by Stephen Daldry 1990s English-language films 1990s British films English-language drama short films {{short-drama-film-stub