Final Rating: 4/5
Sometimes our own bodies rebel against us despite how we try to live. It could be something like chronic back pain or migraines or something that even doctors can’t quite figure out. In Liz Cairns debut feature film, Inedia, that is the state that Cora (Amy Forsyth) is in. She has severe food allergies that cause her to get incredibly painful eczema. Unfortunately the foods that she’s allergic to changes so often not even her own family can keep track of the list.
This leads Cora to live a life that consists of either not eating for periods of time or forcing herself to throw up after eating something she believes will make her sick. Doctors seem unable to diagnose or pinpoint a problem, instead suggesting things like stress or lack of sleep may be the culprit. When in reality her condition is what is causing her stress. The best solution they can offer is hydrocortisone, a cream to help with the rashes and pain after the fact, but nothing to prevent or minimize the pain.
This leads Cora down a rabbit hole of YouTube videos of trying to figure out how other people live with a similar condition. After watching countless mindfulness and wannabe health guru videos nothing seems to be legitimate. She even purges all the food in her house after a video says if you can’t pronounce an ingredient you shouldn’t eat it.
Eventually she comes across a video of a new age commune where the inhabitants don’t eat any food at all, they survive only on the sun’s energy. While the interviewer seems dismissive of their supposed health claims, Cora is drawn into what might be a solution. She already goes periods of time without eating, and if people are claiming it works, it certainly is worth a shot. Cora takes a ferry over to Salt Spring Island and joins Sunhaven where they welcome her with open arms.
When she arrives all her belongings are taken away from her, including her medication (to disconnect from her worldly possessions and be one with the group), and a basket of fresh fruit grown on the commune is given as a last meal. She eats a plump and delicious plum and then bites into a radiant green apple before realizing that it is rotten to its core, not so subtle symbolism about the commune as a whole. It looks legitimate on the surface but hides dark and dangerous secrets beneath the surface.
The enigmatic leader of Sunhaven is Joana, played by Austrian actor Susanne Wuest. She needs to know everything about incoming patients in order to help them, typical controlling behavior. Right away she gets Cora on her side by validating her feelings that her sister Madeline (Rachel Drance) is the enemy of her health.
Despite wanting to live without food, she is haunted by it and when cleaning up after the young child who lives on the compound and still is allowed to eat, Cora shoves the leftover scrambled eggs in her mouth despite knowing that eggs trigger her allergies. She forces herself to throw up and tearfully reveals to Joana that she cheated who scolds her.
The film shows the controlling nature people can exert over others when they are struggling. After going through all the traditional medical channels, with her family and work wanting a diagnosis to know how much empathy they should dole out doesn’t work, it is only normal to want to try something different. Cora joins a group of people who also all have some form of eating disorders, a condition that sufferers are all too good at hiding or rationalizing to others. Joana sucks on fruit late at night when everyone is asleep before spitting it out, and at least one person hides food away, both typical eating disorder traits.
When one of the members, December (Hilda Martin), who is pregnant goes into labour two months early and gives a stillbirth, the truth about Sunhaven comes to a boiling point for Cora. What else is going on and has anyone else died on property? How could she agree to sell her car to financially support the group? Maybe her sister isn’t the enemy?
The film is shot gorgeously on film and the warm earth tones make it easy to fall in love with Sunhaven. Amy Forsyth plays a complicated and confused woman. She so badly wants to be healthy that she is willing to go the distance with Sunhaven and Forsyth plays her with such conviction. Susanne Wuest is equal parts unsettling and charismatic, it is easy to fall under her spell and believe when she is preaching the evils of food you believe her.
The film leaves a lot of mysteries, and Cairns isn’t interested in spelling things out for viewers and is fine with both Cora and the audience not getting a satisfying conclusion. This is just one part of Cora’s journey in life and we don’t know where she will eventually end up.
The music takes New Age tones (like the kind heard in spas) and makes them ominous, and while the tension eventually ramps up as Cora learns the truth of the commune, the film never veers completely into a thriller or horror. This movie isn’t Midsommar or The Wicker Man. If The Zone of Interest was described as the banality of evil, then Inedia would be the banality of cults. Everything seems welcoming and legitimate, but it still is a group of people who have the ability to be quite dangerous and destructive to individual people who are looking for real help.
Cairns, who also wrote the film, uses Breatharians as an inspiration but inedia is the latin word for fasting, so while the film seems to be tackling cults in reality it is a journey into one woman’s relationship with food. The film can be frustrating at times with wanting more twists and reveals, but its meditative nature is easy to fall in love with regardless.
Inedia was seen during the 2024 Vancouver International Film Festival.
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