RITA DI SANTO assesses the winners of the most politically charged festival to date
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Cold comfort farm
MARIA DUARTE sees a drama about a fraught rural family that's raw, visceral and relentlessly bleak
KATARZYNA KOSMALA introduces a retrospective by one of the most significant figures in contemporary US photography
MAYER WAKEFIELD is entertained but let down by an audacious production that, sadly, doesn't ring true
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by drama that, despite accomplished performances, cannot overcome an unfocused script
New releases from Sam Carter, Spell Songs and Les Thomas
Dark River (15)
Directed by Clio Barnard
AFTER the evocative The Arbor and The Selfish Giant, Clio Barnard returns with a searing and grim Yorkshire drama about sibling rivalry, the effects of child abuse and burying the past, juxtaposed with a rural community in decline.
Inspired by Rose Tremain's novel Trespass, it stars the outstanding Ruth Wilson as Alice, a contract sheep shearer. Following the death of her father (Sean Bean), she returns to the family farm on the Yorkshire Dales for the first time in 15 years to claim the tenancy she believes is rightfully hers.
Her older brother Joe (Mark Stanley) is furious because he has been the one managing the farm in the meantime — and running it into the ground — while taking care of their dying father.
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