The Thicket(2023)
Orphan Jack Parker enlists the help of a bounty hunter and others to rescue his kidnapped sister in turn of the century Texas.
Orphan Jack Parker enlists the help of a bounty hunter and others to rescue his kidnapped sister in turn of the century Texas.
Sato's re-imagining of In a Grove, on which Rashomon was based. In this version, instead of a web of lies and agendas, we get a web of desires, perversions like incest, and occult phenomenon like an oracle-demon, hallucinations, and human sacrifice. Once again, the story starts with a detective trying to unravel the story of a man and a woman encountering a bandit-rapist in the woods, but the real story keeps turning out to be unfathomable as layer upon layer of strange motives and events keep turning up.
The first day of the holidays at the campsite. Mimi wants to make friends with the other children, Karl wants to go swimming with the crocodile, Dad’s hungry and Mum left the sandwiches on the kitchen table. All of a sudden, the caretaker’s little rabbit Fernando goes missing. Not until the medieval tourists arrive does a sense of order return. One thing is for sure: the world is in turmoil.
Anna is milking the cows, Jakob smokes pot, Berni works on a telescope and Ulrike celebrates her birthday. So far, everything is fine in Otto's farm. When Ulrike's coffee cup breaks on the kitchen floor, something dark breaks loose. Sometimes the devil has to take the hindmost.
Companions on a bike ride to The Glint Thicket--where there are flying orbs, glimmering gems, and translucent solar plants--encounter a cryptic entity that has inhabited a vernal pool, in this surreal, fantastical one-act stop motion.
A lonely, lost young woman happens upon a mysterious, almost fable-like cottage in the woods, and her relationship with it and its enigma of an owner changes her life — allowing her to embrace her journey into adulthood.