Two Gates of Sleep

In a remote shack on the Louisiana-Mississippi border, two young men prepare in silence for a hunting trip. It is gradually revealed that they are brothers who are fiercely devoted to their ailing mother. The family suffers little intrusion from the outside world, and that seems to suit them just fine. Eventually they do leave the security of their home, as the two sons accompany their mother on her final journey.

Two Gates of Sleep is a small wonder of a film, marking the arrival of Alistair Banks Griffin as an urgent and welcome new voice in American independent cinema. His influences alone are illustrative of how much he stands apart from most of his contemporaries; Banks Griffin wears his admiration for the modern masters of minimalist cinema Lisandro Alonso and Carlos Reygadas on his sleeve, while the title of the film alludes to Homer’s Odyssey. In this thoughtful contemplation of nature, death and isolated boondocks living, Brady Corbet and David Call are afforded little dialogue, yet they give the film a beating heart with emotionally charged performances. They are only upstaged by the mesmerising beauty of the film’s haunting location and luscious visuals.