Synopsis
The tragic story of two sisters whose lives are disrupted by two men. Amidst a landscape of rural hardship and a community consumed with superstition, events unfurl which threaten their sibling bond.
This Filthy Earth
2001 Directed by Andrew Kötting
Cast
Rebecca Palmer Shane Attwooll Demelza Randall Xavier Tchili Dudley Sutton Ina Clough Peter-Hugo Daly Eve Steele Ryan Kelly Benji Ming Bill Rodgers George Neville Rachel Kirk Etta Kötting Stuart Richman Rosemary Townsend Robert Hickson Jem Frazer Mandy Vickerman Jaslyn Griffiths Sue Clark Barry Badblood
Director
Producer
Writers
Editor
Cinematography
Popular reviews
More-
This Filthy Earth is at times too neat as a conventionally plotted and crafted drama, which is a shame because as a work of aesthetic principles it is frequently inspired, using vast amounts of dead space to a degree uncommon in the Anglosphere. The film frequently operates in a kind of Soviet-lite mode of transgression, which is kind of ruthlessly unpleasant and formed out of ugly, borderline unwatchable lighting -- but at its best, the film plays like a flippant drama, more interested in observing rather than provoking discontent. As Pynchon would say, "puce sometimes."
-
-
A thoroughly unpleasant pastoral nightmare that might well belong under the folk horror genre, Kötting's ambitious second feature, co-written with the late Sean Lock (I'm still reeling from his death) is a take on Zola's La Terre and true to its evocative name it portrays the countryside as anything but idyllic.
Centering on an isolated rural community somewhere up north in an undermined period of time, the film follows two peasant sisters whose strong sibling bond is tested when an obnoxious and brutal farmer proposes marriage to one of them as a thinly veiled means of obtaining their land. Shot on grotty digital video, the film has a suitably shabby appearance that lends itself well to Kötting's no-budget approach and…
-
Grim, unforgiving, arresting, unpleasant and yet it seems to achieve everything it wants to do. A really artistically intriguing bit of folk horror.
Do not watch in public / with loved ones.
-
A stunning piece of work. I saw this first after coming home drunk one night and it was already half way into it. It took about 5 years to find a copy and it was well worth the hunt. It has some amazing characters and settings. The whole film is a disgustingly beautiful thing. It’s shot in various formats including video, 8mm and 35mm. It also constantly plays around with time, shots are slowed down and sped up. The whole thing creates quite the atmosphere. The story it’s self is a little light but the visuals are just so amazing that they more and carry the story for the length of the film. The dialect is another amazing part of this. It feels part rural part made up and at times quite Shakespearian. This really is one of the great overlooked films of all time.
-
-
