The Trap

The 1890s, British Columbia. A French-Canadian fur trapper named Jean La Bête comes to town to take a woman back to the cabin where he will spend the winter. In the town the women available for marriage are handed out by auction. The only one left to him is Eve, who cannot speak. She does not want to go; he takes her by force to his cabin in the forest and the winter closes in. The second half of the film goes somewhere else entirely: the man is caught in a trap and loses a leg to stay alive; she has to save him and takes her own decision for the first time. Sidney Hayers's film does not romanticise the relationship; that she was brought there by force is never forgotten at any point. Rita Tushingham does not speak a word throughout the part. The exteriors shot in northern Canada are the strongest thing in it.