Screened as part of NZIFF 2013

A Field in England 2013

Directed by Ben Wheatley

The latest from Ben Wheatley, the award-winning director of previous NZIFF hits Kill List and Sightseers, is a psychedelic folk-horror set during the English Civil War, likely to delight and perplex in equal measure.

UK In English
90 minutes B&W / DCP

Director

Producers

Claire Jones
,
Andrew Starke

Screenplay

Amy Jump

Photography

Laurie Rose

Editors

Amy Jump
,
Ben Wheatley

Production designer

Andy Kelly

Sound

Martin Pavey

Music

James Williams

With

Julian Barratt
,
Peter Ferdinando
,
Richard Glover
,
Ryan Pope
,
Reece Shearsmith
,
Michael Smiley

The latest from Ben Wheatley, the award-winning director of previous NZIFF hits Kill List and Sightseers, is a psychedelic folk-horror set during the English Civil War, likely to delight and perplex in equal measure. Low on plot but high on style and dialogue, it follows a band of deserters led by Reece Shearsmith (League of Gentlemen) and Julian Barratt (The Mighty Boosh). Fleeing from the battlefield, they eventually fall under the spell of a sinister alchemist, played by Michael Smiley (Kill List), who entices them into a search for gold. After wolfing down too many magic mushrooms, the group quickly descends into a chorus of arguments and psychedelic anxiety, all intensified by monochromatic Kubrickian compositions and electronic soundscapes embellished with 17th-century folk songs. Wheatley’s signature traits of violence, black humour and deep dread pervade this earthy examination of madness in an English field. — Ant Timpson