Dutch director Nanouk Leopold’s seventh feature provides uncommonly vivid views of southern Irish scenery and the driven, haunted woman (Natasha O’Keeffe) at the story’s core.
As the ranger overseeing a thickly forested patch of southern Ireland, the woman at the heart of Nanouk Leopold’s seventh feature is a formidable presence in her community. Played with all due tenacity and ferocity by Natasha O’Keeffe, Jen is equally unlikely to suffer fools as tolerate the poachers who’ve been encroaching on her territory under cover of night.
But when she learns that Oscar (Aaron McCusker), a boyfriend from her youth, has returned to town, her stern facade begins to crack. Along with the growing mystery about the dangers lurking in her forest and new developments in her relationship with her beloved father, Daniel (Andrew Bennett), Jen must contend with the repercussions of the tragic event that changed the course of her life and Oscar’s, too.
A slow-burn thriller about reckoning with trauma and containing the furies that threaten to reduce everything to ashes, Whitetail is rife with the same tightly coiled tension that exists deep within its protagonist. It’s just as remarkable for its vivid portrayal of its Irish setting, which director Leopold captures with great authenticity.
Whitetail benefits most of all from an extraordinary performance by O’Keeffe, an actor best known for her parts on such TV hits as Peaky Blinders and The Wheel of Time yet whose own formidable presence in the lead makes the experience of seeing Leopold’s film even richer.
JASON ANDERSON
Content advisory: accident trauma, coarse language, frightening scenes, mature themes, sexually suggestive scenes, violence
Screenings
Scotiabank 5
Scotiabank 4
Scotiabank 9