source: They Who Surround Us

The plot for "They who surround us" is weak and the direction does not help much. The movie goes back and forth with past and present and does not develop from that. The script is shallow and we do not have a sense or feel of the pain the main character is going through. We see the images but not the feeling. Troy Ruptash is a good actor, but his direction falls short. The could be an hour movie long.

I got to watch They Who Surround Us when it played in Toronto in September 2021. On the surface it is a simple story of the repercussions of a death on a family but there is much more below the surface. The setting & culture, (Ukrainian Canadians in Alberta in the 80's) is something I haven't seen in film before. The cinematography, especially in the flashbacks is hauntingly beautiful & reminiscent of the Andrei Tarkovsky films I have seen & loved. The story unravels slowly & subtly & waits until the end to connect all the dots in the different timelines. I & my family, including my 11 year old, really enjoyed it.

Very shallow plot takes forever to build, jumps back and forth with future and past with no base. I had hope but lost interest after 50 minutes of torturous boredom. Just waiting for a friken plot. Come on Canada your better than that !!

A quite effecting study of a grief struck, but taciturn, man, and, we learn, loving father. The beauty of Alberta is stunningly portrayed, as are the horrors inflicted on Ukrainians during -- what I presume is, although it is interestingly kept somewhat ambiguous -- the recapture, by vengeful Soviet forces, of territory taken by the Nazis previously. I found, however, the apparitions, in present times, of lost love ones to be occasionally a bit jarring, breaking with what was otherwise the otherworldly, Malick-like, cinematography and excellent character development. That said, an impressive piece of work.

Half hour in and there is no plot, no character dynamics, and dragged out scenes. When are Canadians going to stop producing crap films like this? If you are suffering from insomnia, this film is a sure cure.

Hello Troy: Saw your film with my wife Bonnie at the Capitol last Saturday as a birthday treat. We both loved it and it reminded both of us of the best of Ingmar Bergman, as it is a great portrayal of someone undergoing PTSD. And we loved the way you make the viewer think the 'inciting incident' in the story happened in a particular way, when it fact it's totally different -- a shocker! The performances were great and the cinematography was fantastic. Congratulations!

This film should not be missed by any Albertan who wants to better understand our rich Ukrainian heritage and how each of us behaves in context to our personal histories. In support of Troy Ruptash, originally from Vegreville and who's done an extraordinary job of showcasing Alberta in this mesmerizing film.

There is commendable material in this film: Ali Liebert is a strong screen presence and effectively grounds each scene she's in, and some sequences, such as the ghost farewell scenes near the end of the film, convey an unguarded and inspiring emotionalism that's executed with surprising conviction. On the whole, I find it admirable to try and craft something this strangely ambitious in its time-jumping structuring and (in its strongest portions) go-for-broke earnestness as a debut. However, I think writer/director/star Troy Ruptash succumbs to insecurity in presenting this vision. This is best exemplified in his performance, which feels choreographed in his held glances, deflections, and outbursts as an emulation of depictions of grief he has seen in previous media rather than a personal sensitivity on his part. This feeling comes about due to his performance alternating between two extreme registers of closed off denial and mania, which both feel unrealistic and make his progression, which is the backbone of the film's structuring, come across as feeling arbitrary rather than cathartic. This insecurity in presentation is further reflected in the film's cinematography, which jumps from car commercial gloss in the flashback and nature sequences, to arthouse textural closeups, to conventional shot reverse shot in dialogue sequences on a dime. This contributes to the feeling that the look of the film was more dependent on thinking "what would a professional movie do" on each specific sequence rather than preserving a cohesive aesthetic perspective overall. The film's worst tendencies come to a head in the war flashbacks, which succumbs to the most basic "serious war film" cliches which I also fear try to "elevate" the central emotional arc by exploiting preconception rather than through the conviction the film's best sequences convey (and brings closer to reality the terrifying notion that Passchendaele is the most influential Canadian film ever made). For Ruptash to use his sensibility to the best of its potential going forward, I would recommend dialing back his ambitions a bit and honing in on something smaller that he has direct, compulsive insight into. This will allow him to ensure each piece of his work is in tune with that guiding sensitivity, and remove the feeling of insecure emulation and disjoint that this work can suffer from. I also think this film's worst parts come from a fear that a wider audience may lose the interest to take the film seriously. If Ruptash can abandon those notions and collaborate with people with like-minded sensibilities and compulsions, a much more effective work will result. Overall though I'm happy to see something I can write at this length about coming out of my old hometown of Vegreville, and for a debut's worst flaw to be insecurity is definitely not the worst case scenario. I hope Ruptash can find a stronger individual sensitivity in his next work as well as the courage to embrace his best tendencies.

This was a beautiful tale depicting the grief of a survivor of WW II, and the impact on the people around him when he again confronts grief. It also provides a good understanding of the impact over a generation.