The Nettle Dress
Dylan Howitt’s poetic documentary can be counted as one of the best cinematic surprises of 2023.
On paper this film may sound like no more than an oddity but it proves to be something quite special and I would not hesitate to call it a work of art. The genre is that of the documentary but The Nettle Dress plays like a poem, a work of beauty which invites each and every viewer to find in it something meaningful to themselves. On the surface it tells how a textile artist living in Sussex, Allan Brown, spent seven years using threads taken from stinging nettles and creating a dress out of them. It was a process which involved foraging, spinning, weaving, cutting and sewing but, however elaborate the procedure, one would not readily guess that it could sustain a full feature film, even one like this which lasts only 68 minutes. For that matter it comes as a complete surprise to discover how rich and rewarding the film is.
The success of The Nettle Dress is born of the perfect match between Brown himself, a philosophically-minded man lacking in pretension, and the film’s director Dylan Howitt. In point of fact these two men have been friends for over thirty years but they share more than that for they have the kinship of a comparable artistic sensibility. In addition to being the director, Howitt produced, edited and photographed The Nettle Dress and the beautiful images are a joy in themselves and truly poetic. Indeed, scenes of Brown at his craft brought to mind the sensitivity of the shots of cloth being woven in the 2022 film The Blue Caftan set in Morocco. It is not Howitt who provides the music score but the contribution of Alex Munslow again shows an appreciation of what is most fitting in this context. In addition to fresh orchestral music, the film also includes one sequence which features an unaccompanied traditional song ‘The Birds in the Spring’ and it proves to be totally in keeping (the singer who captures the tone so perfectly is Liz Pearson).
We see Allan Brown in a rural setting even before the film’s title comes up. What follows is told in seven titled chapters and an epilogue, the first chapter being one in which he is seen in Lime Kiln Wood extracting the soft silky fibres within the nettles growing there. In the second chapter he speaks movingly of the death of his father and it is also here that we learn of the subsequent death of his wife from cancer at the age of forty-five. What then emerges is the extent to which being committed to this time-consuming spinning work gave him a focus in life, a purpose that helped to sustain him. The idea of creating a practical garment in this way added to the value that he found in what he was doing and indeed the dress that resulted would be an example of zero carbon clothing. But it was arguably more relevant to Allan Brown that he was aware of a literary link in the form of a story by Hans Christian Andersen entitled ‘The Wild Swans’ which involved the making of nettle shirts that restored princes to life. While Alex Brown could not be brought back, the creation of a dress which would eventually be worn by one of their daughters, Oonagh, can be seen as a tribute to Alex and a living echo of the days when she would walk through the wood. At one point Allan describes his work as being like weaving a shroud but it enables his grief to be transformed.
Allan Brown's devotion to this project could be seen as verging on eccentricity but what we see of him and of how he comes to terms with grief speaks out on a universal basis. Indeed, one can interpret The Nettle Dress as an illustration of how nature can restore our equilibrium. However, if for some that will be a main theme of the film, this is also a work which makes us share Allan's world and part of that is his kinship with nature which is so strong that it brings out the extent to which most of us are cut off from these roots. Allan's example invites us to meditate on what we have lost in this respect and it increases our own awareness of the beauties of the natural world.
Watching The Nettle Dress, we do become aware of Allan Brown's family – he and Alex had four children altogether – but it feels entirely apt in view of the film’s unique character that Howitt should concentrate fully on Allan himself until those late stages in which Oonagh is involved. The omission might have hidden the warmth within Allan Brown but that aspect does find expression in his companionship with his dog present in so many scenes but without any undue sentimentality. Howitt also needs to be congratulated on his editing since, in cutting down the substantial footage that he shot, he has given us a film that never feels over-extended but is paced in a way that gives one time to reflect on all that lies within it.
Frankly, I was surprised by the subtle and highly individual impact that the film made on me. It appears that others have been equally taken by it. The film had special screenings earlier this year which led to wide public acclaim from its audiences as well as high praise from Sir Mark Rylance. The present British release by Dartmouth Films is the direct result of that. That's something very unusual but it is no less than what The Nettle Dress deserves.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring Allan Brown, Oonagh Brown.
Dir Dylan Howitt, Pro Dylan Howitt, Ph Dylan Howitt, Ed Dylan Howitt, Music Alex Munslow.
Softly Films-Dartmouth Films.
68 mins. UK. 2023. UK Rel: 15 September 2023. Cert. 12A.
