Not bad, just needed a stronger editor.

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What does guilt do to a man? 

Johan is a regular man, with a regular job and a regular life. He could have done nothing to prevent the guilt and by all accounts is not responsible. So why is he so bothered by said guilt when he isn’t guilty?

Johan (Gerrit Knobbe) is, amongst other things, a reed cutter. While performing his job in the wetlands of Northern Netherlands he discovers a dead girl (“Dorpskind” or “Village Girl”, in German as she is credited as, played by Lola Van Zoggel). Not really sure what to do, he calls the emergency number, and the police take information and say they will solve the crime. Johan looks after his granddaughter Dana (Loïs Reinders), who looks to be around the same age as “Dorpskind”. Up until this moment, neither Johan nor Dana knew their small rural area was capable of this kind of atrocity. Although Dana didn’t know the dead girl, she can’t help but notice something is off with her grandfather. Johan thinks about his life, the girls’ life in relation to Dana and what the dead girls’ family must be going through. 

Who was the “Dorpskind” and what did she do for this to happen to her? Johan can’t help but think that the parents of the girl he discovered are destroyed because they won’t be able to do what he and Dana are currently doing: Living. Johan’s guilt turns to obsession and he wants to solve the crime of the “Dorpskind”. But will his obsession make him right? There is a dirt bike trail that leads to where the girl was and that was behind the Petter farm. Their son, Morris (Cor Hendriksen) rides a dirt bike. To be honest, Morris is kind of a jerk. But, would he kill? 

_{Dana (Loïs Reinders) and Johan (Gerrit Knobbe) in Reedland.}

Sven Bressner nailed casting Knobbe as his lead because Knobbe isn’t an actor, he’s a reed cutter. The pain and longing to help in a self loathing mind is read through Knobbe’s beaten down gait yet friendly steel-eyed expression that has us thinking: What happened to you? Bressner’s wide angles in an open field tell us the story of the lonely Johan who wants us to know him, but does he want to have a conversation? 

Bressner hands us a straight story told in an elaborate fashion. Although the movie was about where you’d expect, the bulk of the film comes from B-roll. A small talk leads to minutes of driving that leads to minutes of walking that leads to Johan working. There’s a lot of internal dialogue and not much being stated. You feel Johan’s pain, and see his loneliness, but you never hear what’s bothering him. Does Johan want to solve the murder or does he have to? Could he have been the killer? Is it possible Morris is lying? Reedland is the Netherlands’ official submission to the 98th Academy Awards and it begins its limited release on December 12. It’s not the wise cracking, bone splitting action that we would imagine. What we have is a thought-provoking in-depth glance at a man who does the right thing without being prompted. From a lifetime of hard work, just doing is second nature. Is Johan right or wrong?

The answer to everything is somewhere in the reeds.

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Reedland opens on December 12 in Los Angeles at Laemmle Theaters

Written and directed by Sven Bressner

Starring: Gerrit Knobbe

Genre: Drama

Runtime: 119 mins