It’s summer and a group of young women head off for a week to a house in the country in order to rehearse a play. In the peace and quiet of their natural surroundings, which provide a refuge from the intense heat of the sun, the women go through the text and dress up in their ruched period costumes, while in easy conversation they share their secrets, and also have little adven...
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...