God’s Own Country

Neatly split in half, the film reframes its main character Johnny (Josh O’Connor) as duty bound but profoundly negligent. After his dad suffers a stroke, Johnny adjusts to managing the family farm by nightly boozing in between his casual sex encounters in the pub toilet or in cattle cars at the auction until Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu), a Romanian worker, is hired on to help during the sheep season. Sheep-deep in birthing and shearing adds to the unnervingly irresponsible way he deals with the hand he’s been dealt before coming to accept the principle of action required to survive adulthood. Directed by Francis Lee, who was himself raised on the family farm in Yorkshire.

[NR]