THE CLEARING plays as part of the online London Independent Film Festival 2021.
Tickets available at: www.liff.org
The metaphysical and supernatural collide in the Appalachian region for a journalist investigating the effects of a weird, ongoing storm in Stephanie Trainer’s unusual off-beat rural noir.
A female journalist is investigating the after-effects and source of the mysterious storm through interviews with people whose families have been affected and delving further into the actual location of the storm when she suddenly wakes up, discovering herself alone in her vehicle which won’t start in the middle of a clearing in the woodland territory.
Trying desperately to find escape and closure in the clearing, it becomes an increasingly desperate exodus as she finds herself right back where she started, but in the process begins to have various traumatic visions that take her back to places in her life and begins to share similar experiences with the very people she has been interviewing with a colleague, Steve….
Probably one of the more unusual and strange entries in this year’s London Independent Film Festival, THE CLEARING probably will divide opinion dependent on perspective. Visually arresting, with some terrific effects, but a little distancing in terms of empathy for the film’s main character, coupled with the interchange of images and flashbacks that will confuse on occasion.
It is challenging to sense what the message of the film is representative of, but you are nonetheless keen to see where the journalist is going as she attempts to discover and piece together the effects and legacy of the location, often finding herself alone and without guidance as the manifestations and visions take a hold of her mentality.
THE CLEARING could either be read as an analysis of somebody’s own desire to face up to her personal sadness, using the storm as a metaphor for her own personal troubles, or as a wild-card sci-fi drama which looks to a wider view in the universe.
There will no doubt be more questions than answers in your mind after viewing, but THE CLEARING does have that potential to be one of the cult choices of 2021
