Our take
From early footage of country-folk threshing their crops to blissed-out clubbers at a rave, there is a mesmerizing, insistent sense of rhythm and motion to Arcadia. Director Paul Wright has curated an astonishing array of archive material for this feature-length video montage examining the British and their sometimes uneasy relationship with the land.
Cut together in loosely chronological order, the footage is enigmatic, seductive, and disturbing, set to a haunting soundtrack from Adrian Utley of Portishead and Will Gregory of Goldfrapp. Watching Arcadia is hypnotic, like wading into the uncertain waters of time with a head full of shrooms. And that’s definitely a good thing.
What it won
Berlin
1 nom
The story
A provocative and poetic exploration of how the British people have seen their own land through more than a century of cinema. A hallucinated journey of immense beauty and brutality. A kaleidoscopic essay on how magic and madness have linked human beings to nature since the beginning of time.
Elsewhere
"Arcadia layers its tumbling images to form a portrait of an idiosyncratic nation that hasn't so much lost its way, but rather fallen out of love with itself."
— Adam Lee Davies
"Where it really scores is in Wright's instinctive, somewhat Lynchian feel for the unexpectedly disturbing quality that seemingly benign images of soil or folk costumes take on when they are slowed down or magnified."
— Trevor Johnston
The details
Streaming arrival
Who picked it
Lee Adams is a contributing writer at A Good Movie to Watch, reviewing films and shows across the major streaming services.
