It’s quite lonely out there for the whistleblower. The price of doing the right thing often incurs the wrath not only of the perpetrator, but of the very people the whistleblower is sounding the alarm to protect. Having directed many shorts and served as production designer for such BC titles as The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open and Be Still, Sophie Jarvis makes her feature directing debut with the slow-burn chiller Until Branches Bend.
Introverted Robin (Grace Glowicki) works as a grader at a peach cannery in a fictional town in BC’s Okanagan along with her younger sister Laney (Alexandra Roberts). The idyllic harvest season is disturbed when Robin discovers a nasty-looking beetle burrowed deep within a peach.
When her concerns go unheeded by her smarmy boss Dennis (Lochlyn Munro), Robin takes the initiative to alert the local agricultural research centre in an effort to at least find out whether the bug is dangerous. Her efforts are rewarded with a shutdown of the cannery and a cold shunning by her now-furloughed fellow workers. As the company does its best to deflect blame and her friends struggle between loyalty to her and their pressing economic need to work, Robin finds herself increasingly isolated within the community.
If all this weren’t enough, Robin struggles to secure an abortion from an illicit affair which proves rather difficult even in a country without our neighbour’s Row v. Wade concerns. Nonetheless, she keeps digging into the matter of the tainted fruit when it becomes clear the authorities won’t after bowing to labour unrest. But even her heroic efforts may be too little too late for what mother nature has in store.
I’ve noticed many Canadian titles (Riceboy Sleeps, The Maiden, Viking) at VIFF this year have discarded the stark crispness of digital cinematography for warmer organic celluloid look and Until Branches Bend continues the trend with its colourful, yet haunting 16mm palette. The camerawork capably captures the setting and character nuances, climaxing in an astonishing climactic sequence, the details which I won’t spoil here.
As Robin, Grace Glowicki is a force to be reckoned with as she magnificently exudes bold determination amidst mounting anxiety and helplessness with her mere actions and glances saying far more than any amount of dialogue. Her fellow cast effortlessly blend into the fabric of the film’s world with the possible exception of Lochlyn Munro as Dennis. He is appropriately devious under a veneer of respectability, but being the most recognizable cast member rather chafes against the film’s kitchen sink verisimilitude.
Like Ash before it, Until Branches Bend paints a haunting portrait of a beautiful region where protagonists are isolated both their natural surroundings and torn social fabric. Sophie Jarvis’ debut feature will slowly shatter your nerves and expand your consciousness if perhaps also ruining your taste for peaches.
8.5/10
Until Branches Bend will screen as part of VIFF Repeats at Vancity Theatre on Tuesday, Oct 11 @ 8:30pm