God's Own Country

Francis Lee's feature film debut, "God's Own Country," is a slow burn experience, but the sting is unequivocal and the cinematic journey proves hypnotic and entrancing.

Rough and gruff John Saxby (Josh O'Connor) tends to his Yorkshire family farm by day, and drinks to excess and fucks random male strangers at night. The next morning he vomits and repeats. John lives with his ailing dad (Ian Hart) and stern grandmother (Gemma Jones).

The young man is about as repressed and self-hating as they come, but all of that is about to slowly and strangely (and often sweetly) change when a brooding Romanian migrant worker, Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu), arrives to help out on the farm.

Cultures initially clash and then meld as Johnny and Gheorghe embark on a journey of discovery. Beauty tames the beast on Britback Mountain (Francis Lee includes several nods to the Ang Lee classic), and the audience is treated to an honest and refreshingly raw look at sexual awakening and unexpected tenderness.

The harsh realities of their world is omnipresent (mostly thanks to the stunning camerawork by Joshua James Richards), but Lee also refuses to compromise the complex and combustible but palpable love story at the film's core.

O'Connor and Secareanu fearlessly plunge into their roles, daring to truly depict scenes of intense passion (nudity and all), but also knowing how to expertly handle long takes where dialogue is scarce and the shot becomes about inner revelations.

"God's Own Country" is one of 2017's best films.