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Clip description
Tim (Tim Pye) tracks down his son Ben (Ben Martin) who has run off down the road. He finds that to his surprise he has obeyed his father and collected most of the orange peel he threw out of the car window. Ben wants to keep playing by the road but Tim brings him back to the car – only to discover that Katie (Katie Pye) is now throwing peel on the road. A standoff ensues.
Curator’s notes
Peel’s story and its form emphasise repetition and similarity. Having apparently resolved their dispute, Ben and Tim return to the car, only to repeat the dispute with Katie. The trio are brought to a standstill by their shared qualities. Campion and cinematographer Sally Bongers also draw attention to the family’s visual likenesses through a series of extreme close-ups as Ben intently studies his father and aunt.
As Peel nears its end, Ben’s bouncing on the roof recalls the rhythm of the bouncing orange at the start, emphasising the circular quality of the story. The family are also grouped in a triangle reminiscent of the anthropological graph from the opening titles (see clip one).
