The Passing film review ★★★★★

You’re unlikely to see another film like The Passing this year. Part existential drama, part supernatural horror, director Gareth Bryn (who we were lucky enough to interview) and writer Ed Talfan have put together a true original.

It starts slowly, the manner in which it means to go on. A middle-aged man, as weather-beaten as the valleys around him goes quietly about his business, tending to his hens, dredging a well. But the routine is interrupted when he comes across a crashed car and a couple in distress. Then begins a silent rescue operation; he takes the unconscious woman in his arms, carrying her back home across a vast heathland, her boyfriend stumbling behind. It’s a hauntingly composed scene, one of many that the film has to offer.

Home, as it turns out, is a place untouched by the digital age, and the camera delights in this setting, much enamoured by its faded wallpapers and rain-drenched, mossy gardens. It’s here, in these oppressively remote environs that the film’s theatrics play out; where we learn the truth about the host Stanley and his guests Sara and Iwan.

This, we soon find out, is a couple on the run, but it takes much longer to find out why. It’s a film that keeps you guessing, watching as the house’s farthest reaches are explored; as dynamics shift; as Iwan becomes ever more brutish, and Sara and Stanley grow closer together. For a project like this to work, the acting must be of the highest quality; thankfully, it is. Character deepens as the story gradually unfurls and the darkly dramatic threatens constantly to yield to the supernatural.

Having worked on (and in Talfan's case co-created) the acclaimed drama Hinterland, both director and writer have backgrounds in television. But this move into film proves a more than worthwhile endeavour. For fans of challenging cinema, The Passing is essential viewing.