Cold, a new film from Open Sky, the Hereford based production company run by husband and wife team, Lisle Turner and Claire Coaché, premieres tonight at The Courtyard.

Inspired by their own heartbreaking experience, Cold is a mesmerising and hypnotic story of fear, impossible choices and terrible loss.

Pregnant and nervous, they wait in the antenatal clinic, increasingly anxious about when the doctor might return. To keep his partner distracted, Alfie starts to tell a story and suddenly the couple, now named Ulf and Falda, find themselves in a desolate, wintry landscape where the dark fairy tale unfolds.

There is a hypnotic quality to Cold, which comes largely from it being almost entirely wordless. And that lack of words allows the story to speak more powerfully, intensifying the impact.

Miscarriage is not often spoken of - couples can be torn apart by the different spaces they occupy in its aftermath and words have no power to express the grief, isolation and emptiness the experience brings. Claire and Lisle's film, dedicated to their two baby sons, Bodhi and Brock, 'who came but could not stay', shines an unflinching light on what it is to lose an unborn child.

Jacob Meadows and Janet Etuk as Ulf and Falda rise brilliantly to the challenge of a (largely) wordless script, every look and movement as clear and expressive as if they had spoken, counterpointed by a beautiful score from Jonny Pilcher.

Claire and Lisle hope their film will amplify conversation about this still taboo subject, one that affects so many families. It's a considerable achievement to have created a film so suffused with pain and heartbreak that is at the same time a thing of understated beauty that lingers long after the closing credits.

Cold premieres at The Courtyard and online tonight. To book, visit courtyard.org.uk or call 01432 340555.

Its release comes ahead of Baby Loss Awareness Week, October 9 to 15.