December Bride was the first feature directed by the great Irish cinematographer Thaddeus O'Sullivan. Set at the turn of the century among Ulster Presbyterians-a group set off from Anglican Protestants as well as Catholics-the subject of the film is as unusual as its beauty and the startling poetry of its indigenous speech. Where homesteaders' huts dot a rocky landscape, open space makes for a closed community. Sarah, a young woman of clear-eyed bonniness and surprised intelligence, as played by Saskia Reeves, is housekeeper for two bachelor brothers. When she becomes pregnant, she refuses to say who is the father, for having already rejected the Church, she is clearly married to both brothers, and to neither. The ménage à trois produces a second child. Internalizing, more than mirroring, the unforgiving nature of the land itself, Sarah will neither explain nor negotiate desire. Silence is her power, as it is the film's, which speaks in Rembrandt lighting and stark, discomforting vistas. (JB)