Perhaps one of the most accurate placements in the festival is Hope Dickson Leach’s troubling film The Levelling playing as part of the Discovery program at this year’s TIFF. The film is a discovery because the filmmaker is just starting out, but also because the lead actress, Ellie Kendrick, may be familiar to fans as Meera Reed on Game of Thrones but here reveals herself to be so much more than a part of an ensemble, (she is also very different from that character, despite shooting at the roughly the same time).

But more than anything else, The Levelling is a discovery because the story of an unhappy relationship between a daughter and a father on the heels of a suicide is actually very much rooter in true fact. The flood becomes a sort of character in the film and serves as a metaphor to the fraying and then healing relationships. But despite the message of hope, the film feels a little bit depressing, and while this feeling may be on the nose, it’s tough.

[star v=35]