Bursting with energy and packed with slapstick humour and crazy sight gags, Mike Cheslik’s black-and-white love-letter to the zany comedies of the silent era is a gleefully inventive, defiantly oddball delight that pays homage to early cinematic techniques. The story follows the adventures of Jean Kayak (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews), a hapless frontier applejack brewer, who finds himself locked in a battle of wits with an overwhelming number of adversarial beavers. Struggling to survive and make a living in the wilderness, Jean embarks on a series of increasingly desperate attempts to outwit his resourceful nemeses, with unexpected and hilarious consequences.

Notes by David O’Mahony