Seventeen minutes. One shotgun. A mother who has to outthink her own son to survive.
When Ruth's son Jamie discovers his father has left the family farm to his brother Sam, he is enraged. Jamie has worked on the farm for twenty years, and to him this is the very worst kind of betrayal. In the middle of the night, a shotgun in hand, Jamie drags his daughter across to his parents' house to confront them. It falls to Ruth to talk herself and her family out of a life-threatening hostage situation in which one false move could cost her everything.
Acting
Lorraine Ashbourne's silent calculations speak volumes.
Direction
Bartleet stretches seventeen minutes into eternity.
Writing
Every word Ruth doesn't say matters more than what she does.
Director
Caroline Bartleet
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The title refers to both a legal bind (the will) and Ruth's psychological bind—protecting one child from another while maintaining maternal neutrality she doesn't feel.
Bartleet based the story on real inheritance disputes in rural England, where land often passes to eldest sons regardless of labor contribution.
GB
