Deer Woman Child

WRITTEN and directed by: Gabrielle Russell
Produced by: Laura Torenbeek

DEER WOMAN CHILD

When Pryn’s marriage breaks down after several miscarriages, she retreats to her late grandmother’s remote and run down farm, alone. She takes solace in caring for the farm animals, feeling a sense of belonging in her grandmother’s place, but the isolation is hard as she struggles through the harsh winter. One day she receives a letter from her husband, his new girlfriend is pregnant and they want to get married. He needs her to consent to a divorce. Devastated, Pryn goes deep into the forest intending to take her own life. She is interrupted by an encounter with a wild deer, an older female that approaches her closely, seemingly unafraid as it forages in the frozen landscape. Confronted by the creatures innate will to live, Pryn realises she must carry on. Spring coaxes the land back to life and something is changing inside Pryn. A visit to the clinic confirms she is pregnant.  Astounded by this miracle, Pryn holds onto the hope that this time, things might be different.  Avoiding medical intervention, determined to carry the baby to term, Pryn wanders the moonlit landscape like a wild animal and when she sleeps, her dreams are always of the forest. But something seems to be wrong as the pregnancy comes to term and Pryn knows what she has to do.

2022 Liverpool Film Festival (LIVIFF). UK.