Redland movie

A haunting purgatorial journey through a bygone place and time, Redland is simply the kind of film they don't make any more, and we're all the poorer for that. Made in 2008 and only now reaching theaters thanks to tenacious self-distribution, this low-budget, exceedingly accomplished Depression-era tone poem says as much about the lingering power of cinema in increasingly cynical times as it does about the dearth of courage and judgment among the handful of remaining specialty companies now choking off the pipeline to arthouse distribution. Such a path presents considerable hurdles to the exhibition of any film, but good reviews and solid word of mouth should, in time, enable the picture and its target audience of dedicated cinephiles to find each other.

The impressive debut film from director Asiel Norton and co-writer/producer Magdalena Zyzak wastes no time announcing its touchstones; shot in a fashion that recalls Days of Heaven and Stalker with lesser nods to McCabe and Mrs. Miller and Deliverance, Redland immediately draws viewers into the remote, rural world of an American family simultaneously and paradoxically cut off from the most overt effects of the Great Depression yet equally consumed by them. Despite violently inducing her own abortion, daughter Mary-Ann (Lucy Adden) refuses to name local boy Charlie (Toben Seymour) as her secret beau, straining her relationship with her parents (Mark Aaron and Bernadette Murray) and setting into motion a sequence of events wherein tragedy begets tragedy begets even more tragedy.

"King Lear" it most certainly is not, though Norton and Zyzak aspire to something similarly existential. If not for the copyright, there would be nothing to suggest that Redland was made any time after 1975, from its embrace of low-light, high-grain cinematography and overtly post-enhanced audio to the sometimes awkwardly naturalistic performances of its cast, Redland aims to be self-consciously enigmatic. While such pretentions flirt dangerously with self-indulgence, the net result is impactful to more than justify the choices.

That's not to say that the effort won't frustrate many-filmgoing as an active, rather than passive, activity has faded considerably with recent generations, and it's far from certain how many will be willing to respond to the call at this particular point in time. Nevertheless, it's become increasingly evident that the impressionistic aesthetic which three decades of corporate consolidation have all but entirely expunged from American filmmaking is beginning to find a following yet again, both among audiences and filmmakers. If Redland can ride the crest of the wave, however small, it will have more than achieved its aims.

Distributor: Zyzak Film Company
Cast: Lucy Adden, Toben Seymour, Mark Aaron, Sean Thomas, Kathan Fors, Bernadette Murray, Elena Bell and Lacy Olsen.
Director: Asiel Norton
Screenwriter: Asiel Norton and Magdalena Zyzak
Producer: Magdalena Zyzak
Genre: Drama
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 104 min.
Release date: February 25 NY, March 11 LA