In this ethereal and modern version of a free love film from the 1960s, we find a moody biologist and his graduate assistants trying to develop a summer project in the wild nature of the Appalachian forest. There, they encounter three mysterious figures who will change their lives.
The dim light of this valley, in which Brandon Colvin sets the characters of his third feature film (Frames, 2012; Sabbatical, 2014), is decisive to the multiple layers of meaning of this dramatic folk comedy. A biology teacher (an amazing performance by Robert Longstreet) and his two students are doing fieldwork, collecting species of butterflies and other insects. But work goes by slowly. Instead, weed, gin, fishing that goes awfully bad and the big curiosity towards the past and the bodies dominate the days. Nature’s stolidity helps Colvin to build his deadpan humour and the visit of three young girls gives A Dim Valley's world a soft supernatural tone. Irretrievable love, tragic destinies, inflammable tents are pieces of a puzzle that only slowly uncovers the veil of eroticism, sexual discovery and friendship. Colvin is a master of the sad smile, of the joyful tear, of that summer breeze that all of us feel, sooner or later. (Carlos Natálio)
Director's Bio
Brandon Colvin is from Kentucky. A Dim Valley is his third feature film as writer/director, following Frames (2012 Wisconsin Film Festival) and Sabbatical (2014 New Orleans Film Festival). He is also a film scholar and educator.
