There are times when The Wanting Mare is less feature film, more feature-length perfume ad, with all the style and narrative/anti-narrative features of that most baffling of genres.
The film is the story of Moira, the latest in a long line of dreaming girls who remember the world before it is now, and her encounter with a man who may be able to provide her with her way out of the relentless heat of the city of Whithren.
Nicholas Ashe Bateman’s debut feature is as big on cinematic style as it is short on exposition. It’s a shame because there’s obviously a fascinating world lurking behind the story codes here, and the world of Whithren – what it is, where it is, when it is, and how it came to be – tugs at the corners of your imagination while the characters do some very intense acting in beautifully-filmed scenes to little effect.
The Wanting Mare is an ambitious project, telling a generation-spanning story, but it does it with the scantest attention paid to the structure of storytelling and thus, while exquisitely shot and expertly acted, it falls short of any satisfying filmic experience.
The Wanting Mare is available to rent or own on digital HD from Bulldog Film Distribution on February 7th.
