Sometimes, films surprise you. They are fashioned differently than you would expect. A modern film that is filmed in black and white, “The Artist” (2011), is one example. Another is one that tells a story from the end back to the beginning, like “Momento” (2000). “The Thief” (1952) has no dialogue at all. And “The Old Man and the Sea” (1958) is taken verbatim from Hemingway’s novella.
Now, we have “The Old Man and the Land,” In this interesting work, from director Nicholas Parish and writer Nico Mensinga, the onscreen character never speaks. He is an elderly British sheep farmer (Roger Marten), a widower whose two children have moved away and who continues to run his farm by himself. It is a hard, lonely existence.
What we do hear are the one-sided phone conversations and voicemails with his two alienated children. David (Rory Kinnear) is a 40-year-old wastrel who never met his father’s expectations and suffers from addictions. He expects to inherit the farm despite having no interest in farming. Laura (Emily Beecham) has been living in Spain, working in agriculture, and resents the fact that, as a woman, she will not inherit the farm. The entire story is told in this way.
Visually, we see “Dad” going about his daily chores while we hear David or Laura, and occasionally the two of them, speaking to each other. All the pain and resentment for their relationships with father, mother, grandfather, and each other are slowly exposed. The fragmentary, angry sentences early in the film give way, gradually over a year’s time, to more mature, more reasoned speech.
This film is not going to attract a large swath of the movie-going public. There is no action, and no obvious story. Instead, we witness the slow exposure of a family’s disfunctional past – all from the point of view of the children. What effect this has on “Dad” is cryptic – really unknowable. As portrayed, he never varies from the daily tasks of working with his animals and his machinery. If there is joy in this, he never shows it. At the most, he may display satisfaction with the endless work he’s doing. His children’s monologues expose his violent, drunken past, but also hint at a tenderness he rarely displayed.
The cinematography is worth noting – there are beautiful images of the farm and forest land in which this family lived. The images are alternately stark, warm and enchanting. An especially memorable image is of “Dad” sitting alone at night before a campfire he’s started midst century old trees. One can feel the warmth of the welcoming fire, the vastness of the arboreal surroundings, and the isolation of the old man.
There is also an unfortunate note. The musical background for this film is an unending clamor of discordant sounds that add nothing to the imagery and was, I suppose, intended to represent the discord between the children and their silent parent. In this, it fails.
Note: Roger Marten, who play “Dad” has no film acting credits because he is a real life farmer.
Runtime: One hour, 40 minutes
Availability: In UK theaters Sept. 20, 2024. Streaming on Mubi and Paramount+
. . .
Join us on Facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/itsjustmovies!