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BRIDGEND (UK/Denmark 2015) ***

Review by Gilbert Seah

BRIDGEND is the name of a Welsh town in Bridgend County in south west Wales. It is a beautiful town and the setting of the new English language Danish film photographed by Magnus Nordenhof Jønck and directed by Jeppe Ronde. If I knew how stunning the area was, I would have visited the place when I vacationed in Wales two years. ago.

But it is not the beauty of the town that is on display here. The beauty contrasts with dark goings-on that cannot be explained. Between December 2007 and January 2012 seventy-nine suicides were officially committed in the area. Most of the victims were teenagers, they hanged themselves and left no suicide notes. Danish documentary filmmaker Jeppe Rønde followed the teenagers from the area for six years and wrote the script based on their life stories.

Is it the water? What was the intent? Is it a mass murderer? Is there a cult at work? And why is it that it is always the parents who discover the suicides. The suicides take place in the woods. These are a few of the questions that spring to mind as Ronde’s film opens. But as the film progresses, it becomes clear that he wants the audience to focus on the people of the village, and how ordinary folk can turn angry and unpredictable.

When the film opens, teen Sara (Hannah Murray from GAME OF THRONES) follows her dad, Dave (Steven Waddington) as they arrive in the small town in Bridgend County. The town is haunted by suicides amongst its young inhabitants. As Sara starts hanging around teens her age, she eventually falls dangerously in love with one of the teenagers, Jamie (Josh O’Connor from THE RIOT CLUB) while Dave as the town’s new policeman tries to stop the mysterious chain of suicides.

The teens are shown by Ronde as teens are. They hang around their own, get drunk, have sex and the occasional high, from swimming naked in a cold stream or doing dangerous stunts with a speeding train. Ronde also show how irresponsible they are, often forcing his audience to take the side of the adults. The local vicar (Adrian Rawlins) has good intentions but the teens mock him. When it comes time to really help, he is at a loss what to do. “Go home,” is the best advice he can give to Sara when she is in time of need.

BRIDGEND is an accomplished debut about the mystery of the suicides. It reminds one of the classic Australian film. Peter Weir’s PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK. Like that film, there are certain mysteries in life that can never be explained. Both films do not offer closure on the mysteries, but provide clues in helping the audience interpret the happenings. BRIDGEND finishes with a dreamy sequence that spoils the authentic feel Ronde had created. That is the main flaw of the film.

Jeppe is a director to watch. In 2013, he won a Gold Lion for Best Direction, plus a bronze for cinematography for Come4 ‘The Lover’, a seemingly seedy look at one man’s obsession with sex and prostitution, with a twist. The film also won the Craft Grand Prix at Eurobest.

BRIDGEND does not open in Canada this weekend but in NYC at Cinema Village on May 6th. However, the film can be viewed on the SVOD platform as it is released as a Fandor Exclusive Digital SVOD release on the same day. Fandor is available in Canada and North America only.

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