''Couple in a Hole'' is a 2015 film directed by Tom Geens and starring

Kate Dickie Kate Dickie (born 1971) is a Scottish actress who has appeared in television series, stage plays and films. She is known for her television roles as Lex in the BBC series '' Tinsel Town'' (2000–2001) and Lysa Arryn in the HBO series '' Game ...

and Paul Higgins. The lead actors play a man and woman who live together in the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to C ...

in what could be described as a shallow hole in the ground. Dickie won best actress in a film at the

2016 British Academy Scotland Awards The 26th British Academy Scotland Awards were held on 6 November 2016 at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow, honouring the best Scottish film and television productions of 2016. Presented by BAFTA Scotland, accolades were handed out for the best i ...

for her performance.

Production and release

It is the second feature film directed by Tom Geens, following ''Liar'' (''Menteur'') in 2009. Geens had been involved with experimental theatre in London in the 1990s, before becoming interested in filmmaking after seeing

Thomas Vinterberg Thomas Vinterberg (; born 19 May 1969) is a Danish film director who, along with Lars von Trier, co-founded the Dogme 95 movement in filmmaking, which established rules for simplifying movie production. He is best known for the films ''The Celeb ...

's film ''

Festen ''The Celebration'' ( da, Festen) is a 1998 Danish dark comedy-drama film directed by Thomas Vinterberg and produced by Nimbus Film. The film tells the story of a family gathering to celebrate their father's 60th birthday, juggling subjects of ...

''. Making the film took him five years. Many of the film's creative decisions were influenced by financing, including the Scottish stars and the French setting. He had wanted to set the film somewhere wilder like the forests of Eastern Europe. The soundtrack is by British band

Beak The beak, bill, or rostrum is an external anatomical structure found mostly in birds, but also in turtles, non-avian dinosaurs and a few mammals. A beak is used for eating, preening, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food ...

(stylized as BEAK>).

Plot

It focuses on a Scottish couple, Karen (Dickie) and John (Higgins), who are initially shown living in a hole in the mountains, surviving off what they can find. When Karen is bitten by a spider, John heads to a nearby village and gets the help of Andre (Jerome Kircher). This increases tensions between Karen and John, leading to arguments and some information about why they are living in a hole: they are dealing with grief over the death of a child.

Critical response

It received a generally positive reviews. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has an approval rating of 100% based on reviews from 15 critics. Jonathan Romney in the Observer rated it 3 out of 5, praising the acting in particular, and calling it "a ruralist cross between British psychological realism and the wilder, Artaud-inflected fringes of French art cinema". '' Time Out'' also gave it 3 out of 5, calling it "strange", and saying how it created a mysterious atmosphere of unease rather than being interested in plot. It also featured in ''The Guardians top 50 films of 2016 (its UK release date). Dennis Harvey of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' found it "exasperating and random", concluding that commercial prospects were "remote".

References

{{Reflist

External links

IMDb
2015 films British drama films Films about grieving 2010s British films