A UK trailer has dropped for Clio Barnard’s Ruth Wilson-starrer “Dark River.” “I haven’t seen you for 15 years,” Joe (Mark Stanley, “Game of Thrones”) tells his sister Alice (Wilson). Despite the fact that well over a decade has passed since they’ve been in the same room, neither rushes to greet the other with a hug, or even a smile. Alice’s welcome is chilly, to say the least. “I’m here now,” she tells Joe. But he wonders — aloud — “what good is that?”
Inspired by Rose Tremain’s novel “Trespass,” “Dark River” sees Alice returning home to Yorkshire “to claim the tenancy of the family farm she believes is rightfully hers,” the film’s official synopsis details. “Joe is thrown by Alice’s sudden arrival, angered by her claim, and finds her presence increasingly impossible to deal with. Battling to regain control in a fraught and fragile situation, Alice must confront traumatic memories and family betrayals to find a way to restore the farm and salvage the bond with her brother before both are irrevocably lost.”
The trailer doesn’t reveal exactly what — or whom — traumatized Alice, but it’s clear that she’s still dealing with the effects of the experiences.
“In part it is a film about how damaging it is to be silenced and to bury the past, about how as children we can feel we failed to protect our siblings, and can carry misplaced guilt with us for the rest of our lives,” Barnard told us. “It is also about acceptance and putting the past to rest, and the difficulty of that process.”
Barnard previously helmed two critically acclaimed features: 2010 doc “The Arbor,” a portrait of late playwright Andrea Dunbar, and 2013’s “The Selfish Giant,” an adaptation of an Oscar Wilde story.
Wilson won a Golden Globe in 2015 for her starring role in “The Affair.” The Showtime drama’s fourth season kicks off in 2018.
“Dark River” opens in the UK February 23 and will hit U.S. theaters sometime later in the year.