We want to get to know you more to help improve our service. Please take 2 minutes to fill out our survey here. Thank you! test2

This film is part of Rentals

This film is certified

strong violence, threat, sexual violence

I confirm I am over 15

Title of error

See Help

The Keeping Room

On the American frontier a young woman is forced to go to any means to defend her kin from the ravages of the barbaric outside world.

Western 2016 95 mins

Rent for £3.50

Overview

British director Daniel Barber’s second feature is a gripping, suspenseful drama set in the last days of the American Civil War. Two sisters, Augusta (Brit Marling, Another Earth) and Louise (Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit), together with the family’s African American slave Mad (Muna Otaru) fend for themselves on an isolated farm in the absence of their menfolk, who have long departed for the battlefields.

When Augusta ventures forth to fetch medicine for her sister, she encounters a pair of marauding Yankee scouts (Sam Worthington and Kyle Soller) with booze on their breath and destruction on their minds. Terrified, she retreats to the farm, certain that she will be called upon to defend all that she cherishes. Brit Marling is mesmerising as this feisty young woman whose instinct to fight and protect never waivers, even as unfamiliar desires take hold. Barber’s direction amplifies the tension, striking out boldly with moments of concentrated, explosive action and then lingering to savour the natural lyricism of the land itself (beautifully filmed by Martin Ruhe, Control). Julia Hart’s screenplay, which deftly overlays elements of the classic siege structure with the broody, romantic patina of the Deep South, proves rich source material for a filmmaker whose love of the western can also be detected in Harry Brown and the Oscar-nominated short The Tonto Woman.

Featuring

Brit Marling , Hailee Steinfeld , Sam Worthington and Muna Otaru

Genres

Western

Certificate

strong violence, threat, sexual violence

Country

USA

Language

English

Accessibility

Rent for £3.50

The Searchers The Searchers

Western 1956 119 mins Director: John Ford

John Ford created perhaps the greatest of all westerns with this tale of a Civil War veteran doggedly hunting the Comanche who kidnapped his niece.

Rent for £3.50

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Musical 1954 102 mins Director: Stanley Donen

Stanley Donen's classic musical western, in which a backwoodsman brings home his new bride, sparking inspiration in his six brothers, who decide they want to get married too.

Rent for £3.50

Sweet Country Sweet Country

Period drama 2017 113 mins Director: Warwick Thornton

Australian director Warwick Thornton (Samson and Delilah) brings a vital Indigenous perspective and great cinematic vision to this powerful, revisionist Western, with Sam Neill and Bryan Brown.

Rent for £3.50

Brimstone Brimstone

Western 2017 148 mins Director: Martin Koolhoven

Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning, Kit Harington star in a brutal revenge tale about a mute midwife in the old American west.

Rent for £3.50

Slow West Slow West

Western 2015 84 mins Director: John Maclean

A teenage boy treks through a harsh American west accompanied by a bounty hunter of dubious morality, in this indie western that’s dripped with blood and drenched in style.

Rent for £3.50

Blazing Saddles Blazing Saddles

Comedy 1974 93 mins Director: Mel Brooks

Gather around the campfire for one of the all-time great film comedies, Mel Brooks’ inspired and anarchic deconstruction of the cowboy film.

Rent for £3.50

A Fantastic Woman A Fantastic Woman

Drama 2017 104 mins Director: Sebastián Lelio

This invigorating and inspiring Chilean drama from Sebastián Lelio (Gloria) follows a trans woman’s quest for a little respect. Winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film 2018.

Rent for £3.50

Dark River Dark River

Drama 2018 89 mins Director: Clio Barnard

Clio Barnard follows The Selfish Giant and The Arbor with this searing and eloquent Yorkshire-set drama exploring the fragility of familial relationships.

Rent for £3.50

Sweet Country Sweet Country

Period drama 2017 113 mins Director: Warwick Thornton

Australian director Warwick Thornton (Samson and Delilah) brings a vital Indigenous perspective and great cinematic vision to this powerful, revisionist Western, with Sam Neill and Bryan Brown.

Rent for £3.50

Racer and the Jailbird Racer and the Jailbird

Thriller 2017 130 mins Director: Michaël R. Roskam

Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue is the Warmest Colour) and Matthias Schoenaerts (A Bigger Splash) are lovers entangled in a world of crime in this tough, twisty thriller-romance

Subscribe to watch

Apostasy Apostasy

Drama 2018 95 mins Director: Dan Kokotajlo

A deeply religious family must decide whether to stick by their relation or abandon her, in this striking debut from Daniel Kokotajlo - a prizewinner at BFI London Film Festival 2017.

Rent for £3.50

Sicilian Ghost Story Sicilian Ghost Story

Drama 2017 119 mins Director: Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza

A gripping real-life story of a Mafia kidnapping in Italy is enthrallingly re-imagined as supernatural fantasy by the directors of the acclaimed Salvo.