Land Girls . Newcity Chicago . The gift of a true storyteller is spirited fluency that rises above the brute simplification of synopsis. It's 1941 in England, and three city girls have settled at the Lawrence farm in the Dorset countryside, to tend the fields and reap the crops while the farmhands are off fighting for King and country. But Leland is a storyteller who thwarts expectation at most every turn.
Battle is far away, over the hills, glowing in fearful distance.
But there are moments when deadly reality bursts into their lives. There is a beautiful, strange shot of an airman in flames, staggering left across the Panavision frame while a cow dozily walks left, both framed against the verdant landscape. Leland, an actor and playwright as well as writer-director, is reflective about the smallest details of behavior. I told him to walk like it was a stroll to the canteen. Otherwise, actors wave their arms in the air.