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

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

directed by

Stephen Daldry Stephen David Daldry CBE (born 2 May 1960) is an English director and producer of film, theatre, and television. He has won three Olivier Awards for his work in the West End and three Tony Awards for his work on Broadway. He has received three ...

, written by Tim Clague and produced by

Working Title Films Working Title Films is a British film studio that produces motion pictures and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a division of Comcast. The company was founded by Tim Bev ...

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 based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has p ...

-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 () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

-supporter. Together they watch tapes of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

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 human crush during 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 ...

. 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 enco ...

Awards

*Eight was nominated for the

BAFTA Award for Best Short Film This page lists the winners and nominees for the BAFTA Award for Best British Short Film for each year. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), is a British organisation that hosts annual awards shows for film, television, child ...

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 {{short-drama-film-stub