Heavy themes flourish in this film about a mother trying to keep her family together as she succumbs to her untreated depression and burnout. Written and directed by Karen Chapman, Village Keeper excels at pulling the audience into the impossible pain that this family is facing. After the death of husband and father casts an emotionally volatile cloud over the kids as their mother, Beverly-Jean (Olunike Adeliyi), becomes increasingly paranoid and overwhelmed by her grief.
The film does a great job of illuminating how each family member is suffering and how their collective resistance to seeking help is the recipe for continuing generational trauma. Beverly is loving and self-sacrificing; she is patient and steady, despite being underpaid and mistreated at work. But she is also proud, cut off from herself and in constant fear of something bad happening to her family against the backdrop of the dangerous neighbourhood that they live in. Her emotional rigidness poisons the kids, her son is lashing out through violence and her daughter is having panic attacks from things she witnessed years earlier. Both kids are worried, facing the complicated grief surrounding their father’s death.
Through Beverly’s POV narration, we can feel how desperate this woman is for a gasp of air. What makes watching this film such a beautiful experience is seeing how she begins to heal and takes her family through that process. I cried for the entire film as did the rest of the audience I sat with. There are many imbalances in the performances- some of the actors are stronger than others, the soundtrack is not great and the pacing is inconsistent. However, these are small issues that Chapman will improve upon over time- what matters is the message and she absolutely nailed it.
Chapman understands and respects the harsh reality of being black and poor in Canada. She reminds the audience that this family- they are human and experience trauma and pain like everyone else. They are not less than or violent because of how they look or where they live. We see Beverly face these micro-aggressive stereotypes daily and the final product of these psychological attacks is the woman we meet at the beginning of the film. I believe this film is for every black family working through the impossible but I also feel it is equally for non-black viewers who can relate to domestic violence, moody teens, financial struggles and finding yourself again.
This is a Canadian film that should not be overlooked.
Village Keeper is playing at TIFF ’24. For more information, click here.
