Pulling Up Stumps
2024 · 13m · New Zealand
Directed by Elinor Teele
Tones: contemplative, tender, whimsical
In a dusty Central Otago woolshed, an elderly man trying to fix a broken kitchen appliance is interrupted by a chatty stranger and an irksome rooster, and finds himself obliged to listen to the saga of an immovable stump — a tale whose significance slowly deepens.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Everyone expects a quiet New Zealand pastoral to be sincere and gentle, so Teele's decision to let the rooster and the stranger interrupt that reverence—to let irritation sit *in* the frame instead of resolving it—is the kind of tonal sabotage that makes me pay attention; it refuses the easy catharsis.
This is the work of a director who understands the lineage of the pastoral parable, from Bresson through contemporary Quiet Cinema, and who has the formal restraint to trust that a single woolshed, two actors, and an obstinate stump can carry the full weight of intergenerational meaning—the editing breathes, the rhythm is considered, and the landscape does its own argument.
The choice to adapt her grandfather's American story into Central Otago and then *keep* the strangeness of that transposition—the cultural displacement living right there in the visual texture—is what transforms a small, intimate setup into something that feels genuinely earned rather than precious.