There also appears to be a plethora of creepy masks and wicker people, so I’m on board for those elements alone. Cameron Baily, programmer at TIFF, describes the film as “A veritable symphony of the unusual, the sad and the strange, The Fifth Season is as unsettling as it is striking.” Again, sign me up for this one.
Hit the jump for the full synopsis and newly subtitled trailer provided by Twitch.
In a secluded village deep in the Ardennes, a community gathers to set alight an effigy of Uncle Winter atop a mountain of brush. When the pyre refuses to burn, winter cannot pass into spring and nature stagnates: the bees disappear, seeds refuse to sprout and cows no longer offer milk. Desperation turns to madness as the villagers suffer the deteri-oration of their land, their relationships, their bodies and their minds. Tractors circle in endless loops; birds refuse to sing; a young girl’s nose bleeds endlessly. As the adult world crumbles around them, three adolescents — Alice, Thomas and Octave — toil on the farms, explore the deep forests and attempt to make some sense of the chaos that has engulfed their village. Alice and Thomas are in a budding relationship, while Octave watches the world from his wheelchair, perked atop his parents’ food truck. For all three, without the turning of the seasons, maturation remains just out of reach. The villagers turn on each other as the natural order collapses, engaging in strange, farcical acts of malice. In the end, only the prospect of human sacrifice offers them any hope.
