The Tribe

Three sisters have survived a pandemic that has devastated humanity . Living in their remote outpost their lives change when a young man looking for sanctuary turns up

With a synopsis like this I was reminded of the Don Siegel/Clint Eastwood 1971 movie THE BEGUILED . It is something of a Western that could take place in a 19th Century homestead rather than a post apocalypse scenario in the 21st Century . Unfortunately the screenplay constantly misses opportunities or more specifically can't make up its mind what it wants to be . The sexual tension created by the character dynamics is explored but quickly forgotten when the plot takes a swift turn . At this point I was expecting the very real female fear of sexual assault seen earlier in Boyle's 28 DAYS LATER to take centre stage but again this isn't really followed up

All this is a pity because it's an independent feature which is impressive from a technical point of few with the main aspect being the striking cinematography . It's a great looking low budget film but goes to prove cinema is visual storytelling and if the story isn't focused it makes for an unsatisfying film

A disease has thinned the population to near extinction. Three sisters are left alone at a remote ranch that their survivalist father built before killing himself. The girls wait hopefully for the rains to return, then one day a young man walks out of the desert.

The three sisters are excellently portrayed and are great characters. The clashes between the eldest sisters as they question the instructions left them by their father before he deserted them are electric.

When the outsider arrives the girls appear to be low hanging (and ripe) fruit. But looks can be deceiving and various plans collide to create some considerable drama.

The female leads are excellent giving very believable performances. Cinematography is great, making the most of the rugged desert landscape.

I don't want to spoil anything, but don't expect a whole load of rainbows here.

Simple story, well crafted. I choose to ignore the very last scene (on accounts I don't understand it) but I would recommend this.

I am not sure where all the stellar reviews came from for this movie. I can only assume that many family and friends of this movie rated it. All the elements were in place to make a great movie, sadly many opportunities were missed while making this lackluster movie.

They apparently had zero technical advisers on the set. A muzzle loading rifle only shoots ONE bullet. It then requires a long and involved manual process to reload it, from the muzzle. You need to pour a measured amount of black powder into the muzzle, then ram some wadding and a bullet down the muzzle (front) of the barrel with a big stick, like the one attached to the rifle. This process takes 2-4 minutes by someone skilled in such a task.

I guess there are some magical muzzle loading rifles out there that shoot as fast as you can squeeze the trigger without the need to reload them. I am in the market for such a magical rifle to use while I am am riding my unicorn.

The genre is sci-fi so such a magical gun makes sense, I guess. I only finished watching it in the hopes it would get better as it had a good start. I did not get better. Much discipline was learned on the part of this viewer to not end this abomination early on during the viewing/waterboarding. An extra star given for the ladies fine attempt at acting. They will get better I think.

The 'Tomato' people owe me 90 minutes of my life back.

Taste in movies often comes down to atmosphere and this one pulls it off with feelings of isolation and enough effective dialog to keep things moving. It thoroughly holds your attention and the ending is hard to predict; another mark of a good film.

My main nitpick would be that someone didn't fully clean the lens in a few panoramic scenes.

While this story and its characters could have been fleshed out more, that's true of many films in their restricted times. I don't understand the low ratings and suggest watching it for yourself.

I had the pleasure of viewing this film at the Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto back in June. There was much to be impressed about in this first feature. From the choice of frame to the clarity of the performances all the elements were orchestrated to draw the audience along into the inevitability of the situation without ever becoming predictable. The director utilized her (albeit limited) resources to optimum effect to create a feature that stands firmly on its feet with no apologies and which delivers a punch, the impact of which belies its modest budget. The audience left the screening replete after this slow burning thriller, visually and intellectually satisfied. I have the feeling we will be seeing a lot more from promising director Ms. Roxy Shih.