Bridgend

The mist-drenched Welsh valley of Bridgend exudes an ineffable force that has compelled scores of young adults to end their lives in its midst. What made them do it? That question haunts this unforgettable coming-of-age tale, based on fact but suffused with brooding subjectivity. Hannah Murray (Game of Thrones) stars as a wide-eyed teenaged outsider drawn into the insular culture of Bridgend’s mystery. While her peers carry out their private rituals, gathering in the woods and online chat rooms to pay tribute to the dead, Sara’s detective father searches for answers. Is this some kind of cult? Is the Internet to blame? Escalating in tone from romantic realism to impressionistic nightmare, acclaimed Danish documentarian Jeppe Rønde’s first fiction feature is less an investigation than an empathetic evocation of ordinary adolescent desires—for love, identity, belonging—driven to inexplicable extremes. As one boy tells the detective, with that retort of teens everywhere: “You’ll never understand.”