Bridgend
Directed by Jeppe Ronde
Festival Screenings
Some films aren’t meant to be optimistic, and this is definitely one of them. A police investigator, Dave (Steven Waddington), brings his teenage daughter Sara (Hannah Murray) with him to the small Welsh town of Bridgend, which is notable for its alarmingly high suicide rate among its young people. The town’s teenage population functions as a cult of sorts, honoring its members who commit suicide on a troublingly regular basis. Dave looks at it from an analytical vantage point, seeking to stop the trend but also to figure out whether parents are to blame, while Sara becomes immersed in it, befriending those who we know well won’t be around for long. Murray is reminiscent of Adele Exarchopoulos, capable of conveying plenty with one lingering look. This is a dark, disturbing picture of an unsettling group mentality, and it’s even scarier to learn that its setting is based on true events. It’s certainly haunting and hard to shake, framing a difficult story in an intense and effective way.
See it or skip it? See it if you can handle something harsh and dark.
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