The One's You Didn't Burn

Siblings Nathan (Nathan Wallace) and Mirra (Jenna Sander) return to their father’s home after his suicide looking to clear and sell it as quickly as possible. That’s Nathan’s idea though Mirra is not so rushed.

The farm is tended by sisters Alice (Elise Finnerty) and Scarlett (Estelle Girard Parks) who greet them, distant but friendly enough. A more troubling element is the appearance of Nathan’s old pal Greg (Samuel Dunning) who is a drunk as well as druggy. He does however have a more information about the death of Nathan’s father and his distrust of the sisters is palpable.

As a recovering alcoholic Greg is the last person that Nathan needs and he’s soon back on the booze and blacking out. Mirra, repulsed by Greg, is getting better acquainted with Alice and Scarlett, who almost appear to be stalking her round the fields. And it isn’t long before the viewer works out that they are up to something with tales of witchcraft, Massachusetts and their attachment to the land.

At seventy minutes there’s not a lot of time to draw out great character details. But writer, director and actor Elise Finnerty successfully fleshes the principals out enough for the viewer to either have sympathy or hate. Granted the latter lands on the men with Nathan and Greg being appalling people. But Finnerty goes deeper and wider than what is an ostensibly a tale about the sins of the father, expanding into the corrosive nature of misogyny in society generally.

For all the digging about the farm with the discoveries of journals and photographs that move the story forward, Mirra and Nathan’s eventual fates are sign posted fairly early on in the film – Nathan’s booze problems and his bad dreams, Mirra and her developing friendship with the sisters. In fact, they are not far being two separate stories for a period of the film. It’s a functional device that builds anticipation and keeps the viewer in tune with the two strands that eventually mesh neatly together.