“I Believe in a Holistic Approach to World Building”: Sophie Jarvis on her TIFF-Debuting Psychological Drama Until Branches Bend

Veteran production designer Sophie Jarvis’s assured feature debut Until Branches Bend is one smartly executed, unexpected gem. Premiering in the Discovery section of this year’s TIFF, the psychological drama (really a contemporary horror film) follows a cannery worker named Robin (2016 TIFF Rising Star Grace Glowicki) whose life is upended after discovering a creepy bug in a peach while (conveniently) alone at break time. Unable to get her boss to take the very real threat of a catastrophic invasion seriously — and perhaps risk a factory shutdown — she decides to go public with her unappetizing finding, which entails sounding the alarm to a community that relies exclusively on said factory for its financial lifeblood, and is similarly inclined to dismiss a woman like Robin. That is to say, a strong-willed Cassandra who has to crusade just to be heard as well as a blue collar worker forced to jump through hoop after condescending hoop just to access a basic right like abortion — something Robin now desperately needs after having an affair with a (married) boss prone to blowing off a woman’s “hysterical” concerns. A few weeks prior to Until Branches Bend’s September 10 (at TIFF Bell Lightbox) world premiere Filmmaker reached out to the Canadian designer-director to learn all about cinematically weaving together personal and environmental havoc (while a pandemic and raging wildfires loomed like an omen offscreen).

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.