Restive

About the film

Somewhere out in the middle of American nowhere, a mother tries to escape with her child from her violent and dominating husband - and ends up being pursued through the surrounding forest by her husband's two hillbilly buddies. That's how easily 'Restive' can be described. There are no unnecessary explanations, no names and almost no dialogue. It all boils down to the bare bones, told in fragmented, impressionist pieces. A dark and dreamlike hunt and a mother's desperate struggle to survive and be free. 'Restive' is the director Jeremiah Jones's first film, and with it he has made an intense and sombre white trash thriller, which draws upon hillbilly classics such as 'Deliverance' and 'Straw Dogs', while following the vein of later products of the same genre, like last year's 'Winter's Bone'. But this is in no way meant to belittle 'Restive', which is an entirely unique work: a bizarre story that resorts to mythic minimalism, smart flashbacks and elliptic elegance to both challenge disorient the spectator, and forces us to constantly piece together the story from scratch.