Pickle

Pickle was a fish, so named because he was in a pickle. Metaphorically, that is. Literally, he was in a sponge. It was specially built for him so that he could stay upright despite the fact that the middle portion of his body had never formed properly. He was one of several rescue animals whose stories are told in Amy Nicholson's poignant and funny documentary about one couple's encounters with life and death.

Tom and Debbie, the director's parents, have been adopting animals for many years. The first was a chicken, which grew very fat and then died of a heart attack. Shortly afterwards there was a rooster who also mysteriously acquired a lot of weight, and whose heart failed him. This may arouse some suspicion is viewers but Debbie, her tone calm and observational, doesn't seem to have given it a passing thought. "That's life!" is the observation she and Tom make, with sad smiles, though their stories speak of years of pleasure in the company of their assorted charges.

In a big, beautiful house surrounded by woodland, water and sky full of predators, a possum with shattered hind legs once pulled himself around on a skateboard wheelchair; the grave of a beloved goose is guarded by a dog. Tales of crick-necked cats and round-bodied mynah birds are illustrated with simple cartoons. In the woodshed where he's carving the latest gravestones, Tom shows us some of the devices he constructed to improve other adoptees' quality of life. Mentions of trips to the vet make clear that the couple have taken proper advice on how and when to provide care; there never seems to have been any question of them failing to do so.

What, in the end, is the point of all this love when all the animals have eventually died anyway? That's the unspoken question underlying these tales. Tom and Debbie are older now and it has a different aspect. Their ease together, their completion of each other's stories, speaks volumes. Absurd and edged with bathos it may be, but this is a touching testament to the good things in life.