Directed by Suzanne Raes, following the death of their parents, Harriet and her siblings must unpack their childhood fears as they prepare to sell their dragon-filled Oxfordshire home.
Being left to handle the affairs of your late parents can reveal a lot of things, memories, secrets and curiosities, but Where Dragons Live doesn’t really reveal much. It follows an emotional, family experience but whether it’s one that was worthy of making a documentary about, feels questionable. Partly because this is a very privileged family, searching through their family mansion, and for the most part, simply reminiscing about their childhoods. As well as discovering the issues that arise from not properly maintaining such an old, large property, in the country.
It’s not exactly something that a lot of viewers will be able to relate to. The emotional issues and themes of grief and loss are not explored with a lot of depth, and their family history is not particularly storied or unusual. The way that they talk is a very particular kind of British existence, one loud flag of wealth is certainly having a boy in his early teens casually talking about inheritance tax. The privilege is just too prevalent, it gets in the way of the wider story of family history and having to let go of things which hold sentiment and memory.
While its story does not offer much, it is shot well and it would be hard to deny that this family estate is a great shooting location. Its many hiding places are interesting to explore, like something pulled out of a Blyton novel. There’s also the angle of how people can casually become hoarders when you have so much space, leaving these siblings to delve through decades worth of paperwork and possessions.
Where Dragons Live had a nice idea but that’s not quite enough to sustain a feature documentary. It quietly moves through the idea of how a lot of the things they have to purge themselves of help them to feel connected to their late parents, as well as their own childhoods. Unfortunately, that doesn’t take things very far as the emotional side of the film doesn’t feel strong, it’s a meandering journey, without a lasting impression.