This film is part of Rentals

This Blessed Plot
Lori, a female Chinese filmmaker, visits the historic English village of Thaxted where she finds the dead and the living curiously entwined, in Marc Isaacs playful mix of documentary and fiction.
Director: Marc Isaacs
Overview
When Lori, a young Chinese filmmaker, arrives in the small English village of Thaxted, she discovers it’s a place where the dead surround the living and the border between the two is easily crossed, with each offering an insight into England’s past and present state. Lori is introduced to the village church and she becomes fascinated with long dead Socialist Vicar, Conrad Noel, who speaks to her from beyond the grave. And he’s not the only one. Filmmaking and archive breaks down the borders between the past and present in a tale of love, loss and betrayal.
Following on from his last docu-fiction hybrid feature, The Filmmaker’s House (2020), Marc Isaacs again embraces the artistic freedom that working with a micro-budget and a cast of unknown non-professionals provide. This Blessed Plot is his attempt to innovate by remaining outside conventional industrial film production structures.
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