First Winter (1982)

This is quite a chilling short drama that follows a young Irish immigrant family as they struggle with their first winter in Canada. With her husband having to work elsewhere, it falls to a mother to keep her daughter and younger son from the bitterness of the climate. It’s a constant cycle of chopping wood and breaking the ice to provide water and that, in the face of the constantly sub-zero temperatures, ultimately takes it’s toll leaving the youngsters to fend for themselves. Can they survive the bleak conditions until their dad returns, though? It’s quite a touching story of survival against the elements with two young actors delivering quite poignantly as the older (Sharon O’Neill) has to keep her increasingly dejected sibling (Eric Patrick Godfrey) from simply giving up. It illustrates well the pioneering spirit, sustained by a little religious faith, that prevailed amongst families that left poverty behind only to find it followed them across the stormy seas, though at least here they had no exploitative landlords - just wolves and trees and ice.