Teenagers at a secondary school in the Canadian provinces. A time between childhood and adulthood where boundaries are tested and overstepped. One day they’re still drawing tattoos on their arms with felt tips and making papier-maché fish in class, the next smoking between lessons, easily capable of pointing out the local pot dealer. This particular aspect of their daily realit...
Taratoa Stappard’s brooding debut feature plunges us into the dour moors of 1859 North Yorkshire, where the British Empire’s reach casts long and twisted shadows. Mary Stevens (Ariāna Osborne), a young Māori teacher from Aotearoa (New Zealand), arrives in search of family truths, only to find the man who summoned her already dead and no clear path home. Stranded in an unfamilia...