Went up the Hill (Drama)
Director: Samuel Van Grinsven
Producer: Vicky Pope,Samantha Jennings,Kristina Ceyton
Screenwriter: Jory Anast,Samuel Van Grinsven
Cinematographer: Tyson Perkins
Key Cast: Vicky Krieps,Sarah Peirse,Dacre Montgomery
Two strangers are possessed by grief, shared trauma and the same ghost in this chilly Antipodean Gothic.
Jack (Dacre Montgomery, Stranger Things) travels to New Zealand for the funeral of his estranged mother, Elizabeth, from whom he was separated by social services as a child. Though Jack claims he was invited by his mother’s widow, Jill (Vicky Krieps, The Dead Don’t Hurt, MIFF 2024), she has no recollection of doing so. Nevertheless, Jill invites Jack to stay in her austere South Island home, an architectural marvel designed by her dead wife. As night falls, it becomes clear that Elizabeth’s malevolent spirit lingers in the space – and that she has unfinished business with both of them.
This Bergmanesque queer psychosexual two-hander is the second feature by New Zealand–born, Sydney-based filmmaker Samuel Van Grinsven (Sequin in a Blue Room, MIFF 2019). Montgomery and Krieps give a scene partner masterclass, deftly handling three personas between them through subtle shifts in physicality and voicework. With an unnerving musical score by recurring Terrence Malick collaborator Hanan Townshend, this elegant ghost story explores the difficulty of reckoning with what the dead leave behind.
“Went up the Hill is a note-perfect Gothic: stunning, uneasy, and harrowing.” – The Curb
———
Director Samuel Van Grinsven is a guest of the festival and will be in attendance at both sessions of the film. Cast member Dacre Montgomery is also a guest of the festival and will be in attendance at the Sunday 10 August session of the film.