In Cinemas

Lapwing review – 16th-century drama of bristling brutality

Philip Stevens’ unsettling debut, set on the Lincolnshire coast, tells of a forbidden romance between a mute woman and a Romani man

A title card gives us the historical context: it's 1554 and Queen Mary has just passed the Egyptians Act, making it “illegal for Gypsies and Travellers to remain in England.” They must leave within a month or face execution. Hooked on this stipulation, Philip Stevens’ 16th-century drama Lapwing finds one woman fighting against the restraints that cage her existence. Right from the off, the film’s bleakness shows little chance of meaningful reparation for its protagonist.

Playwright-turned-screenwriter Laura Turner imbues the forbidden Romeo and Juliet romance between nonverbal Patience (Hannah Douglas) and traveller Rumi (Sebastian De Souza) with a tempered intensity. While Rumi and his family are in perpetual purgatory for a month on the Lincolnshire coastline as they wait for a boat to save them, Patience can only pray for such a defined means of escape. She is subject to her overbearing brother-in-law, David (Emmett Scanlan), whose vicious abuse is unrelenting.

Much of the film is set to the perpetual rise and fall of the sun on the horizon of this never-ending English marshland, the stunning skyline and its luring colours making Patience and Rumi into stark silhouettes amongst the long grass. But these are fleeting, short-lived pauses: when the light has diminished, the campfire’s golden glow illuminates the contrasting bruises on Patience’s face. The hopelessly heartbreaking reality of Patience’s life is subjected to incessant verbal, emotional, and then horrendous physical abuse from David.

Reminiscent of Jennifer Kent’s gothic The Nightingale, Lapwing is also haunted by the berating aggression and merciless violence of men attacking women, which soon comes to feel unending. Sequences of rape are torturously framed as the camera holds its closeness to Patient’s face, her disassociated gaze turning numb as she is repeatedly assaulted. The abrasive negotiation of this brutal moment is both provocative and the film’s most devastating pinnacle.

Still, Lapwing is made powerful by Douglas and Scanlan’s fine performances, both of which are unwavering in the face of such cinematic intensity. The former is especially noticeable with a role that is absent of dialogue. Instead, minute facial expressions and wide eyes tell her story of mistreatment.

Embedded in this barren landscape, Patience watches the men around her progress in the tight-knit community as she awaits a chance to escape to begin her own journey. Scored to a subtly soft piano melody in its lighter moments and with deliberately uncomfortable close-ups in its pronounced sequences of horror, Lapwing may not be overly original, but it is a work of decisively provoking menace.

Lapwing is released in cinemas and digital platforms on 26 November.

Where to watch

More Reviews...

The Innocent review – 60s-inspired heist movie with an existential twist

In his fourth feature film, writer-director Louis Garrel explores with wit and tenderness the risk and worth of second chances

Baato review – Nepal’s past and future collide in an immersive, fraught documentary

A mountain trek intertwines with a road-building project, granting incisive, if underpowered, insight into a much underseen world

The Beanie Bubble review – a grim new low for the “corporate biopic” genre

With none of the saving graces of Tetris, Air, or Barbie, this ambition-free look at the Beanie Baby craze is pure mediocrity

Everybody Loves Jeanne review – thoroughly modern fable of grief, romantic confusion, and climate anxiety

Celine Deveaux's French-Portuguese debut can be too quirky for its own good, but a fantastically written lead character keeps it afloat

Features

Repertory Rundown: What to Watch in London This Week, From Little Women to Sergio Leone

From classics to cult favourites, our team highlight some of the best one-off screenings and re-releases showing this week in the capital

Repertory Rundown: What to Watch in London This Week, From Coppola to Cross of Iron

From classics to cult favourites, our team highlight some of the best one-off screenings and re-releases showing this week in the capital

20 Best Films of 2023 (So Far)

With the year at the halfway point, our writers choose their favourite films, from daring documentaries to box office bombs

Repertory Rundown: What to Watch in London This Week, From Mistress America to The Man Who Wasn’t There

From classics to cult favourites, our team highlight some of the best one-off screenings and re-releases showing this week in the capital