REVIEW: Ashgrove @ Glasgow Film Festival (World Premiere)

The world has changed – again. This time the world’s water supply has been mysteriously poisoned and people must closely monitor how much they drink to limit their toxicity, but even then… the clock is ticking.

This drama parallels the pandemic but focuses attention instead on the unsettling marriage between the lead character played by Amanda Brugel (Handmade’s Tale) and her husband played by Jonas Chernick. Brugel and Chernick are also the writers of this film (with Jeremy LaLonde), and it’s an adept script – tight but generous and not rushed.

Brugel’s character is a renowned scientist working on a cure for the water problem. Her intense focus on work has put her relationships under strain. She is also suffering from severe stress, and possibly water-related, blackouts. She is prescribed rest which she is unsurprisingly reluctant to take with such important work to do. However, under pressure from her boss, she goes away for a weekend in the country with her husband at a farmhouse called Ashgrove.

This film is beautifully suspenseful and the central performances are outstanding. Many of us have had to make small changes (or large ones) to our lives during the past couple of years so we can relate well to the small hassles and worries in a public health situation – obsessing over things that seem small, making behaviourial changes, or adapting to shortage of this or that. In the film the situation facing humanity is much worse, and the feeling of suffering from near-constant thirst is palpable.

The relationship between the couple is edgy and emotional, depriving the main character of the peace of mind and slice of semi-normality she needs, and letting the audience wonder what is really going on. The film twists and turns within its own bubble, and is directed imaginatively and expertly by Jeremy LaLonde.