Tortured souls seek human contact in deeply felt spiritual drama 'Free in Deed'

By Michael Rechtshaffen

Sept. 7, 2017 11:45 AM PT

Set along a particularly downtrodden stretch of Memphis, Tenn., Jake Mahaffy’s bleakly spare, powerful “Free in Deed” focuses on a pair of damaged souls who seek salvation beneath the harsh fluorescent lighting of a converted storefront Pentecostal church.

A single mother, Melva (Edwina Findley), barely coping with the increasingly violent outbursts of her preteen son Benny (Rajay Chandler, in a remarkable debut), who appears to have a severe form of autism, opts to place what’s left of her splintering faith in the hands of Brother Abe (David Harewood).

Having come “from a dark place” himself, and still bearing the visibly pained demeanor of a tortured past, the reborn Abe has earned a reputation as something of a healer, and, with the encouragement of church administrator Mother (Prophetess Libra), attempts to purge Benny of the demonic forces that he believes to be contributing to his condition.

The fact-based story, which is allowed to quietly unfold in a series of extended takes, has been stripped of all artifice, especially in regard to the pared-back performances of Harewood, a British actor with regular roles on “Homeland” and “Supergirl,” and Findley, who starred in Ava DuVernay’s 2012 breakthrough feature, “Middle of Nowhere.”

Guided by the New Zealand-based Mahaffy, theirs is an achingly raw and tender portrait of two spiritually isolated individuals for whom the laying on of hands is a surrogate for some desperately needed human contact.

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