Dark River 2017

Dark River

Dark River

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A tale of familial secrets.

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About the Dark River 💬

• A family secret unearths a tragic past.

On learning the news of her father's death, itinerant contract sheep shearer Alice Bell (Ruth Wilson) returns to the family farm, a once beautiful smallholding on the Yorkshire moors, to claim the tenancy she believes is rightfully hers.

Estranged from the family for fifteen years, Alice's homecoming is not an easy one. Her brother, Joe Bell (Mark Stanley) has remained at home caring for their ill father, Richard Bell (Sean Bean) and kept the declining farm going in her absence. Joe is thrown by Alice's sudden arrival and is hurt and angered by her claim on the tenancy.

• Every family has their demons.

In an unconscious attempt to turn the clock back Alice is determined to make both the farm and sibling relationship work. However, she suffers intrusive memories because of her father's sexual exploitation of her when she was a teenager. Joe finds Alice's presence impossible to deal with as it stirs up the past for him too.

Following Richard's death, the landlords want to capitalize on the property and perceive Alice to be a threat. They offer Joe a way out of what he sees as an impossible situation by offering him a backhander - on the condition that he evicts his sister.

Battling to regain control in a fraught and fragile situation, Alice must confront deep-seated and painful family secrets and betrayals to find a way to repair the damage to the farm and her bond with her brother before both are irrevocably lost.

The title is taken from Ted Hughes' poem, The Dark River.

'Any moment now, a last kick. And the dark river will fold it away.'

The dark river could be a place of cleansing or a place of burial. There is an ambiguity about whether this is good or bad. In part, it is a film about how damaging it is to be silenced and to bury the past - but it is also about acceptance, putting the past to rest, making peace with it, about the complexity and difficulty of that process.

Framed by PJ Harvey singing a folk arrangement of a traditional children's rhyme 'My Father Gave me an Acre of Land', writer /director Clio Barnard sees DARK RIVER as a contemporary folk tale about the exploitation of a woman's body and the land, which leads to a killing.

Dark River Movie Details 🎥

Directed by

Clio Barnard

Writing Credits

Clio Barnard (Screenplay)

Lila Rawlings (Story development)

Rose Tremain (Based in part on the novel ''Trespass'' by)

Starring

Ruth Wilson

Mark Stanley

Sean Bean

Esme Creed-Miles

Aiden McCullough

Joe Dempsie

Mike Noble

Shane Attwooll

Steve Garti

Dean Andrews

Music by

Harry Escott

Cinematography by

Adriano Goldman

Genres: Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Country: United Kingdom

Dark River Official Trailer

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