'In Vitro' is an otherworldly rumination on memory, history, place and identity. Set in Bethlehem decades after an ecological-disaster, the dying founder of a subterranean orchard is engaged in a dialogue with her young successor, who was born underground and has never seen the town she's destined to replant and repopulate. Inherited trauma, exile and collective memory are central themes.
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...