Whitetail

Nanouk Leopold serves up a dramatic thriller in which a weary forester tries to lay aside the memory of a traumatic hunting incident from her youth. She seeks salvation in the moss green landscape of southern Ireland, but everything changes when her former boyfriend resurfaces.

In the impressive opening scene of Whitetail, we witness a tragic event in Jen’s life. When rambling through the stunning forests of southern Ireland with her new love Oscar, a deer hunt turns into a heavily traumatic experience. Years later, we catch up with Jen. She has become a lonely and emotionally numb adult, leading a reclusive life as a forester. But everything changes when, after years of absence, Oscar returns in her life, forcing Jen to confront her suppressed traumas.

Internationally lauded filmmaker Nanouk Leopold grew up in Rotterdam and is a welcome guest at IFFR. With her seventh feature film Whitetail, she creates a subdued, yet tense character-driven drama. Like in her previous films, including Guernsey (2005) and Brownian Movement (2010), Leopold manages to penetrate deeply into the emotional inner world of her main character. Actress Natasha O’Keeffe (Peaky Blinders) convinces in her subtle portrayal of Jen, while the flow of Frank van den Eeden’s camera (Close, Holly) ensures that the beautifully moist and mossy landscape gets a prominent role in this drama that slowly creeps under your skin.

– Cas Hoekstra

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