Into the Forest is the Globe’s pick for the one to watch at the Vancouver International Film Festival on Thursday, Oct. 8.
The Globe's pick for the one to watch at the Vancouver International Film Festival on Thursday, Oct. 8
Into the Forest
Directed by Patricia Rozema
Country: Canada
Set in the near-future in an isolated B.C.-like rural milieu, Into the Forest asks the viewer to swallow one sizable chunk of disbelief: that a mammoth but unexplained power outage affecting much or most of North America would continue without resolution not just for days or weeks but for well over a year. The swallowing is eased, though, by engaged performances from leads Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood, playing survivalist siblings forced to discover and develop the resources of their own resourcefulness. Rozema, directing a script she adapted from Jean Hegland's novel of the same name, keeps the action suspenseful and the characters nuanced, while Daniel Grant's cinematography captures both the majesty and the menace of the forest primeval. Elevator Pitch: Sisters doin' it for themselves in the deep, dark woods after catastrophe strikes.