Mike McCahill 

Light Years review – delicate and arresting sibling drama

Esther May Campbell’s debut feature operates betweens social and poetic realism and unleashes some extraordinary imagery
  
  

Rose (Zamira Fuller) in Light Years
Promising start … Rose (Zamira Fuller) in Light Years Photograph: film company handout

Now Andrea Arnold has gone west with American Honey, who’s coming up behind her? This delicate debut suggests it might yet be Esther May Campbell, a writer-director who here ventures Bristol way, digs around at the intersection of social and poetic realism, and emerges with several extraordinary images alongside handfuls of arthouse filler. Campbell’s mapping of the uncertain terrain around three young siblings left directionless by distant/absent parents is frequently arresting: golf balls and butterflies erupt inside the frame, while a wild-haired old man pursues nervy Ewan (James Stuckey) in one terrifyingly Lynchian development.

Beth Orton makes feature acting debut in Light Years

Yet her geography’s stronger than her psychology: while cinematographers Zac Nicholson and Will Pugh cram the screen with formerly under-observed, left-of-centre life, the manner in which these characters talk and behave sometimes strains credibility. Promising, nevertheless: the final push towards reconciliation is heartening, and Campbell’s visual sense is already so strong you long to see where she’s heading next.

Watch the trailer for Light Years
 

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