The shame in Steve McQueen’s 2011 film is never clearly stated, but nonetheless finds plenty of opportunities to present itself. Perhaps we see it in the film’s opening scenes, when a married woman feels a flush of guilt upon considering an affair with another man. Or maybe it comes later, when our hero finds himself caught in an embarrassing moment during an encounter with a woman, unable to carry on with a date that seemed promising. Or possibly it appears toward the end, when a young woman clings to a life threatened by self-inflicted wounds in a hospital as cold and sterile as the rest of the world feels. Whose shame do we experience and what is the source?
