Director: Andreas van Riet
Writers: Andreas van Riet & Kyle Williams
Cast: Raphael Rees, Roseanna Grace Anderson, Edmund Sage-Green
Running time: 15mins
Andreas van Riet’s last short, The Metamorphosis, was one of the most successful additions to Indy Film Library’s 2024 programme. As well as being the best-read IFL review of the last year, the film received a sold-out screening to cap our April event at Cavia, and won Best Cinematography, while Van Riet himself picked up a special commendation in the Best Director category.
In the wake of that kind of a home-run, it would be understandable if Van Riet were to ‘play it safe’ with his next production, and deliver something similar. But The Nettle Man is nothing of the sort – co-written with Kyle Williams, this is a completely original production, which moves away from the dark and desperate themes of Kafka’s novel, to deliver something which might be more reminiscent of classic children’s television.
In some areas Van Riet and company have nailed this surprise pivot, and deserve praise for refusing to rest on their laurels here. In stark contrast to the glorious black-and-white gloom of The Metamorphosis, Amir Shabanov’s photography has all the hazy, warm energy of prestige BBC kids dramas from days gone by. Child-actor Raphael Rees as Jacob, and Roseanna Grace Anderson as his mother, lean into this warmth, and use it to portray a delicate moment in a relationship where the tender innocent days of early youth give way to a colder reality. And the script from Williams and Van Riet is understatedly poetic, gently guiding us through this moment, while having the sense not to talk down to its (presumed) target audience of young families.
But while one of the biggest positives from Van Riet’s latest film comes from his gutsy willingness to try something new, that is a double-edged sword. The Metamorphosis was an “almost excessively faithful adaptation”, but that meant there was a lot of subtext to draw on for those involved. In the case of The Nettle Man, the risk in moving to original material was that there would be less of that unseen or thematic guidance to help push the project to another level.
A 15-minute story needs a little more than whimsy to retain the attentions of younger audience members. There is precious little in the way of threat here. When Jacob, a child who has wandered from the safe supervision of his mother to play in the woods stumbles upon a ‘monster’ – what seems to be a talking stinging nettle, which his mother then observes is a wounded soldier – the film doesn’t get close to unnerving us. This should be a defining moment for Jacob, where he learns that the world is not as safe a space as his early life had led him to believe – but Edmund Sage-Green is given no time at all to impress upon us the ambiguity of his presence. Certainly, not every stranger will do you harm, but many will – and that first encounter with someone new always comes with that edge of potential violence, even when we shift into adulthood.
That might sound a bit morbid for a production aimed at children, but that would be to overlook the fact that most of the classic children’s stories – in print, on stage or screen – endure because they are able to at least hint at those themes. Beatrix Potter’s tales are filled with animals determined to eat each other – one even trying to bake a live kitten into a pudding. Themes of sickness, injustice and abandonment run through The Railway Children. And Children of the Stones was an entire generation’s gateway into British folk horror.
There are, of course, other adult themes which these stories introduce, and whether or not it convinces in its exploration of a child learning to deal with possible external threats, The Nettle Man does better there. In particular, the story attempts to deal with the absence of a paternal parent, and the impacts that not only has on a son, but the remaining parent in the household.
When the soldier emerges from the woods, Jacob is unsure what to make of him, but his mother instinctively recoils. She seems to know very well who this ‘monster’ is, and that his entry into their lives is either undesirable, or unnatural. As the man’s intentions come to seem more benign to her, she welcomes him into her house, and gently prompts Jacob to interact with him.
Whatever impossible fantasy scenario has transpired, however, the forces which aligned to cause it cannot hold for long. Symbolised by two clouds, moving together before drifting apart, the mother and child, and the man, must part company – while the apparent magic of the nettle bed that apparently yielded the soldier in the first place demonstrably dulls in the final shot.
It is difficult to know whether the script does enough to underline all this. I am in principal a fan of this less-is-more approach, but feel that it might play better to its target audience if the script leant more into the elements of fantasy or ghost fiction which it alludes to. At the same time, to carry parents in the audience along with their children, a more overt exploration of the relationship between the mother and the ‘Nettle Man’ would definitely help with the film’s universal appeal.
At the same time, elaborating more on the relationship between mother and child might help deliver meaning to some of the technical choices made during the production, that don’t quite fit at the moment. In particular, there are some peculiar decisions around the blocking of the actors in several standout scenes.
When speaking to a child, comforting or informing them about things they encounter, it is usually the case that caring parents in films take a knee. Crouching brings them into the child’s world, helping them to communicate more empathetically. But Jacob’s mother seldom seems willing to lower herself to that same level – instead bending with straight legs, and peering down at him.
This disconnect could be deployed to show she is trying to hide something from him, or it could mean she is placing a barrier between them which she believes is for his own protection – before learning through the emergence of the ‘Nettle Man’ that she needs to trust him, and respect how he is growing. Again, that is an opportunity to tell a more universal, and relatable story – and build from solid foundations to make something really remarkable.
With that being said, a good foundational mythology is something which is all too easy to take for granted. The fact is, the majority of films don’t make it that far – especially when targeting a family audience. In that regard, The Nettle Man might work best as a proof of concept – crying out to a production house to be fleshed out into something of a modern children’s classic. The bones are all here, begging to be fleshed out.
At the end of the day, it has been unfair of me to speak so much about Andreas van Riet’s previous film. This is a distinct, and imaginative story of its own, which should be respected as such. I don’t know if it is a project he will push on with from here – as noted, I think there is a lot of potential down that path, if he choses it – but if not, I think it will have further equipped him with a diverse tool-kit, and prepared him for even more exciting forays into other unexpected genres. I can’t wait to see what those might be.