Devon’s moors are the backdrop for this hybrid film that constructs an imaginary community and frames sentiments of belonging at a time when parochialism and nationalism are globally prevailing. Inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, Hipkins grafts portraits of his forebears across Devon's uncanny landscapes. A subtext of Doyle’s classic novel negotiates yearnings for a homecoming and a mythical ancestral land.
The Valley premiered at Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, Auckland in the exhibition Gavin Hipkins: The Homely II, 23 Feb 2019 - 2 June 2019.