Couple in a Hole
classified 12APlease note: This was screened in April 2016
Director Tom Geens’ new film brings a profound oddness to this darkly funny, very moving tale of a couple who quite literally live in a hole. They are John (Paul Higgins) and Karen (Kate Dickie), a Scottish husband and wife who have decamped, for reasons unknown, to the French countryside, where they eke out a simple, almost feral existence in the woods, foraging for food, water and resources and staying away from the villagers in the valley below.
When Karen is bitten by a poisonous spider, however, John is forced to visit the nearest village, where he meets passer-by André (Jerome Kircher). They strike up a cautious friendship, but John hides it from Karen, with tragic consequences.
Featuring a woozy, subliminal score from Bristol band BEAK> (Portishead’s Geoff Barrow plus Billy Fuller and Matt Williams), Couple in a Hole manages to balance both stark realism and an unsettling sense of the absurd – no wonder it has been hailed as ‘being close to an instant classic’.