THE POWER OF SPECULATION

RESISTANCE (2011: Dir. Amit Gupta)

It defies understanding when nearly five years after its British release, North American audiences are still unable to see a great film. Resistance, co-written and based on the novel by Owen Sheers, is an intense portrait in miniature about an isolated valley in Wales that is occupied in WWII by the German army. This is the genre of alternate history, a speculation based on the premise of a Britain invaded after the failure of D-Day. Sheers, a proud Welshman, masterfully conveys an ambient sense of place and premonitory power with the story of a group of women who awake one morning to find their farmer husbands have mysteriously absconded in the night. The main protagonist is Sarah, played by the ever-compelling Andrea Riseborough, an abandoned woman in personal conflict with the courteous and cultured German officer (Tom Wlaschiha) whose patrol unit controls the valley. Theirs is a relationship symbolizing everything that makes the British a resolute island people and the Germans a ruthless invader. Northumberland-born Riseborough, an actress whose porcelain countenance and fragile frame often conceal the stuff of steely determination, is superbly matched opposite Wlaschiha, an East German actor whose gentle voice and penetrating stare provide a soothing sense of unease. Their scenes, as with those of  the rest of the cast are expertly directed by Amit Gupta, in his astonishingly assured feature directorial debut. Gupta, with a painterly eye, composes scene after scene of haunting imagery, where solitary figures linger amidst the secluded rolling green hills of Wales. Such serenity provides shocking contrast with a violent war better suited to the baneful beaches of Normandy.  It is however the ambiguity of moral choice that is at the heart of Resistance, driven home by the simple poetry of Sheers and Gupta's screenplay. Silences as much as dialogue, communicate the inner life of characters forced to fully confront the banal danger of everyday existence. Having been born on a continent without a history of invasion, one is humbled by this small yet forceful film. An inspiring tale with an unerring courage of its convictions. DVD REGION 2