The Keeping Room is directed by Daniel Barber and written by Julia Hart. It stars Brit Marling, Hailee Steinfeld, Muna Otaru, Sam Worthington and Kyle Soller. Music is by Martin Phipp and cinematography by Martin Ruhe.It's the back end of the American Civil War and 3 women fight to defend their home from 2 Union Army "Bummers"...Uncle Billy is coming!As genres go, the Western (Re: Southerns - Civil Wars) are primarily male dominated, but just occasionally female led pictures from this ilk come forth to shine bright. It's refreshing that in this modern era of film making, genre film makers are not afraid to pitch the female angle to remind all that women had a key part in the shaping of the frontiers all those years ago. Or as is the case here, they were not merely token fodder, but often women of strength prepared to take up the fight to protect themselves when under duress.Daniel Barber and Julia Hart have crafted a magnetic piece, that aside from a daft misstep at pic's finale booms with feminist wiles. Opening with a burst of shocking violence and sexual assault inference, this is merely an attention grabbing appertiser as the pic then settles into a languid realm. The makers are in no hurry here, those expecting an action fuelled piece are in for great disappointment. Not to say further jolts to the system are not forthcoming, they exist and are truly throat grabbing, but tone is set at earthy realism, the sparse locations sidling up nicely with the lives of the women functioning while their loved ones are lost to the war that rages on the edge of the frame.Performances are top end, the girls superb, the boys frighteningly on the boil for the dark side that the war would bore out. As for the look as per tech credits? With the pic being shot in Romania it is natural to approach this thinking it will lack for period flavours, yet it very much does come up trumps there. Anyone familiar with the Barber and Ruhe collaboration Harry Brown 2009, and liked its aesthetical look, will appreciate the craft on show here, more so as Phipps' musical score compliments like some sort of edgy spectre. Barber has an eye for stunning shots, here with such things as a burning carriage in flight post crime committed, or our heroine on white horse in flight through a lonely tree laden pathway, there is beauty here in a world containing monsters.*SPOILER* Resolution of the play is frustrating and rewarding in equal measure, the women strong and correctly earning our admiration - that they have to dress as men to escape the horrors of war just doesn't strike the right chord in a play with such a strong feminine bent - but that could just be me being picky...Not one for those lacking patience, or misogynistic geezers who expect women in Westerns to be token fodder or punch bags, The Keeping Room has much to offer genre fans embracing this sort of story telling as a whole. 8/10

--but you haven't. Not by a long shot. Muna Otaru's lines alone are worth the entire time spent with this film. She plays a slave who is one of the strongest women of trust in God ever portrayed on the silver screen. Hailee Steinfeld, ultra-famous for playing the precocious youngster in the far superior remake of True Grit, appears in this so-called Western (we have no genre called Southern) as a whimpering, naive, arrogant older teenager--but, as with True Grit and her powerful bit part in The Homesman, she carries the film with equal power to Otaru and Brit Marling (whose wounded-and-crying scene is one of the most realistic I have ever seen). No, you have not seen this film done time and again. You have never seen this story, which reveals the realities of war that we all too often set aside as battlefield anomalies but which, in truth, are always part and parcel of any conflict between two opposing armies. I, for one, would love to see Steinfeld quit the sappy glossy music industry and concentrate all of her talent on making films like this one--or making films in general. She's just so much better at it.

It's the last days of the American Civil War. Sisters Augusta (Brit Marling) and Louise (Hailee Steinfeld) live on a farm with their only slave Mad. Two marauding Union soldiers arrive ahead of the main Army.This is a sparse small production. The writing is sparing. The subject matter lends itself for a tougher intensity but it opts for a weary atmosphere. It doesn't flinch from the violence but it doesn't revel in action. It is an indie film overall.

Set in 1865 at the tail end of the American Civil War we meet two sisters and their former black slave who have been left to fend for themselves on the farm since the war has taken away all the men folk. The new way of life sits uneasy on the younger sister baulking at her new lowly status as a mere field hand.Then a chance occurrence means her elder sister – has to go to town and in so doing crosses paths with two Yankee soldiers who are part of an advance foraging party. They are no lovers of the rule of law and as William Tecumseh Sherman has said 'War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it; the crueller it is, the sooner it will be over'. These guys seem to want the war to end much quicker than most would countenance and bring their own brand of 'cruel'. Thus is set in motion a plight and fight for survival as the soldiers set about getting what they really want.Now this is part of the new clutch of westerns that bring gritty realism with modern sensibilities, and I am a fan. It is done really well with god attention to period detail and a keening authenticity that makes the characters mire believable. Couple this with a string cast and a good story and you have nigh on all the ingredients for a very well made film.