British artist filmmaker Andrew Kotting (Gallivant) has branched out to a French Pyrenees setting for this tale of disintegrating family dynamics. Russian emigre patriarch Andrei Ivul, either unable or unwilling to control his chaotic family, exerts his will over his land instead, withdrawing into an obsessive interest in forestry, believing that: "A civilisation develops when old men plant trees knowing that they will never rest in their shade".

Teenager Alex (Jacob Auzanneau), the only son amongst a gaggle of girls, disappoints the tyrannical Andrei, who perceives him as weak, sensitive and too close to his sisters. With his sister Freya's extended trip to Russia imminent, a combination of sibling shenanigans, rampaging hormones and bad timing cause a family misunderstanding, leading Andrei to command -- like some angry ancient god -- that Alex "never again set foot on my land". A battle of wills commences: Alex takes to the trees, living amongst the branches, creeping along the top of walls, and with unexpected tenaciousness (plus spite, teenage contrariness and genetic bloody-mindedness) he literally never sets foot on the land. This is second in a trilogy of films after This Filthy Earth (2000), an adaptation of Emile Zola's La terre, and the character of Ivul has autobiographical echoes of Knotting's relationship with his own father -- he has revealed that as he himself would seek (short term) escape in the treetops.

NB: Andrew Kotting will be present for a post screening Q&A. Ivul is released in London on 23/07 and screens at the Renoir till 05/08.