Fanny Lye Deliver'd

In 1657, the era after Cromwell assumed power, England lived under a new tyranny: a violent age during which our modern ideas about individuality and sexuality were forged, so the film contends. Thomas Clay’s newest feature, which he has dubbed a ‘Puritan Western’, is about liberation and the birth of an idea. Fanny and John Lye live with their young son, Arthur, on a remote farm outside of Shropshire. One Sunday after church they find two strangers, Thomas and Rebecca, who say they have been robbed, though there seems to be more to the story. In an unguarded moment, Rebecca tells the devout Fanny that she and Thomas are unmarried and begs Fanny not to tell her patriarchal husband. The next day, armed puritans turn up at the door saying there has been an orgy at a local inn. Succeeding the shocking The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael, Clay has created an intriguing genre mash-up filmed and projected on 35mm. (International Film Festival Rotterdam)