Sunset Song is an adaptation of the book Sunset Song, by Scottish author Lewis Grassic Gibbon.  The novel is regarded as one of the most important novels of the 20th Century, partially due to its frank depiction of a family’s harsh life. It was adapted to the screen and directed by Terence Davies.

The story follows the Guthrie family, who manage a farm in the early 1900s.  The father, John (Peter Mullan), is dominant, cold, and harsh. Chris (Agyness Deyn), the only daughter, has dreams of being a teacher.  She and her brother Will (Jack Greenlees) help their father, but manage to evoke his wrath from time to time.  Their mother, Jean (Daniela Nardini), manages the homestead, as well as two younger sons. She is distraught when she learns she’s pregnant again, and commits suicide.

Chris has to put her dreams of being a teacher on hold, to manage the farm in her mother’s place. Will, desperate to remove himself from under his father’s thumb, finds work elsewhere, then a wife, and announces they are moving to Argentina. John takes on a farmhand, and Chris manages to find a beau, Ewan (Kevin Guthrie).

There is much more to the story, but I’ll stop there. This film is very pretty, and pleasant to watch, for the visuals. The realities are a lot more brutal, and I’ll leave them for you to discover. The story plods along, and the movie itself runs 2 hours, 15 minutes. That’s OK, because it comes to a mostly satisfying conclusion. Recommended.

The Scottish dialect is pretty heavy, and would be hard to follow, at times, but the version I saw had subtitles.