Forbidden Ground
Entertainment One
19 August 2013
£8
Co-directors Johan Earl and Adrian Powers’s nerve-racking new WWI indie drama Forbidden Ground has exceeded expectation despite the film’s low budget. After moving credits interspersing modern shots of WWI cemeteries and archived wartime footage, we are thrown in the tense surroundings of a British trench pre-offensive.
As one wave of men is sent over the top the audience is left to imagine the horror of the attack, as the camera instead focuses on the faces of the men left behind forced to listen to their comrades being cut down by machine-gun fire. We are introduced to the cool-headed, stoic Sergeant-Major Wilkins (played by director Johan Earl) who is ordered by a stereotypically donkey-brained and obstinate commanding officer to mount another big push. As far as the remaining men are concerned, their fates are sealed.
Considering the small budget, the chaos and terror of going of going over the top is vividly enacted. Bodies in fox-holes, mud-caked rifles jamming in the arms of wounded men as the relentless German machine guns pound the ground around them. While this is not a Saving Private Ryan-esque gore-fest, you would be hard-pressed to depict such an attack without the occasional bullet to the head or severed leg.
Following the failed attack, the action focuses on three men stranded in no-mans-land. Sergeant-Major Wilkins locates the badly shaken Private O’Leary (Tim Pockock) and the badly wounded Corporal Jennings (Martin Copping). The dark and the mud and the ever-watching crosshairs of the German snipers make for claustrophobic viewing as the three men attempt to crawl their way back to the safety of the British line. The men’s fear is palpable, the logistics of transporting a wounded man in increments is frustrating, and inter-group difficulties add to their plight. These scenes are gripping and showcase the directorial team’s talent for keep their audience riveted.
Less exciting are the cut scenes back to Blighty, where Sergeant-Major Wilkins’s wife is facing the turmoil of an unwanted pregnancy. Compared to the gripping action unfolding in no-mans-land, this rather soft, soap opera-style drama makes for some unwelcome light relief. However Denai Grace does a good job as the lonely wife who wrestles with fidelity, unsure of whether her husband is alive.
In all, this is a very enjoyable film. Much has been made of the low budget on which it was shot, and it is certainly impressive to have so accurately evoked WWI battlefields on little money from a farm in Dubbo, New South Wales. But regardless of how much was spent creating it and how the explosions were funded, this is a cleverly shot evocative film that I will undoubtedly revisit in the future.