MIFF – MASS

Two couples come together for a painful emotional reckoning in the aftermath of a school shooting in this acclaimed debut feature.

Jay (Jason Isaacs, Streamline, MIFF 2021) and Gail (Martha Plimpton) are parents to a murdered son; Richard (Reed Birney) and Linda (Ann Dowd, The Handmaid’s Tale; A Kid Like Jake, MIFF 2018), parents to the killer. Meeting in the antechamber of an unnamed town’s church six years after the massacre, they tentatively begin to breach the gulf separating understanding from resentment, forgiveness from blame.

First-time writer/director Fran Kranz skilfully stages this confrontation as an expansive four-way dialogue that surges and flows as it builds towards a profound emotional release. Held aloft by finely calibrated performances from an exceptional cast of theatre veterans – particularly Dowd, who was nominated for a BAFTA for her portrayal – Mass develops a sensitive and sharp perspective on this most American of tragedies, which has garnered it critical praise and festival awards across the US.

“An inquiry into questions of guilt and innocence and the surprising ways they can overlap … [that] announces Fran Kranz as a bold new filmmaker who has earned the right to excavate a subject as sensitive as this one.” – Variety