Lights at the end of a tunnel

When Christmas doesn’t feel quite like Christmas, this lovely animation hits just the right note of optimism in its depiction of small glowing moments of cheer amid the gloom. 

Each year Passion works with one of its directors on a self-funded charity project. This year they partnered with Tjoff Koong who directed and produced The Lights, to support the work of the Ringcross Community Centre Foodbank in Islington. 

It is set to a newly recorded version of Amazing Grace – a song that seems to be at once forlorn and uplifting – sung by Vimala Rowe, arranged by Luciano Rossi, and depicts scenes of life on an ordinary street as festive illuminations are raised. 

Lonely figures are glimpsed through windows, conjuring this year of isolation: a nurse wearily recuperates in a bath after a long shift; a recovering patient gazes from his bed at the lights, and – those yuletide favourites – a mother and child, reach out to a far off grandmother by video call as the mother tenderly sings to her babe. 

Without bashing you over the head with a reindeer or deafening you with jingle bells and yuletide tropes, this subtle film gently references both Christmas – and Covid – to land a message of love and remind us of small gestures that unite us when we are separated.

Run by the Alexandra Wylie Tower Foundation, Ringcross Community Centre Foodbank is local to Passion’s studio and delivers supplies to hundreds of families in crisis each week. Predicting a 61 per cent rise in demand this year, its services are needed more than ever now.