Peter Brosens, Jessica Woodworth / Belgium/Netherlands/France / 2012 / 93 min
As seasons become blighted by previously unimaginable amounts of rainfall, the dramatic effects of climate change are increasingly apparent. Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth’s allegorical thriller looks at how a disruption in the seasons could possibly affect a change within ourselves. In a rural French village something’s wrong, cows won’t produce milk, bees won’t make honey and seeds won’t germinate. As this organic stalemate continues the once strong community spirit begins to deteriorate as their life essentials slowly dwindle away.
Lingering shots of the bleak landscape seem to taunt the characters, displaying what should be a bountiful provider reduced to a barren shell. The cinematic palette is stripped of bright colours producing a ghostly atmosphere which, when combined with the haunting strains of the violin contributes to a fractious impression of tension and unknowing, reflecting the community’s disturbing and desperate situation. There’s an unassuming simplicity to the film’s structure, however each conversation, movement and expression cowers in the ever-present shadow of the bizarre phenomenon. Repeated allusions to the forlorn countryside suggest a disconnected relationship between Man and Mother Earth, emphasised by the struggle to coax any food from the ground, cows or bees. In a culture so dependent on machines, GM farming and the Internet, the film becomes a metaphor for the growing distance between people and the natural world.
Showing as part of the Glasgow Film Festival 2013
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