Going home isn’t easy, and it’s a familiar storytelling device, but Clio Barnard (“The Arbor,” “The Selfish Giant“) gives the subject a gritty spin with “Dark River.”
The new film from the director stars Ruth Wilson and Mark Stanley, and follows a woman who returns to the family farm to run after her father passes away. However, she’ll clash with her older brother, who has his own ideas about the future of the family’s land. Here’s the official synopsis:
Following the death of her father, Alice (Ruth Wilson) returns home to Yorkshire for the first time in 15 years, to claim the tenancy of the family farm she believes is rightfully hers. Once there she encounters her older brother Joe (Mark Stanley) a man she barely recognizes, worn down by years of struggling to keep the farm going whilst caring for their sick father. Joe is thrown by Alice’s sudden arrival, angered by her claim and finds her presence increasingly impossible to deal with. Battling to regain control in a fraught and fragile situation, Alice must confront traumatic memories and family betrayals to find a way to restore the farm and salvage the bond with her brother before both are irrevocably lost.
“Dark River” opens in the U.K. on February 23, 2018. No word yet on a U.S. date.