Drought

I was lucky enough to see this film at the "Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee," where it won the top prize. It is a remarkable film. The expressionistic source, a prize-winning novella by Debra Di Blasi, who adapted her work into film's most effective screenplay, has been translated into a cinematic language that serves as a dreamscape provoking images of love and loss that will stay with you a

long, long time. Highly recommended for those who love the ability of cinema to translate the written word into visual images.

This little beauty of a film manages more in 30 minutes than 98% of films screened in theatres. I first saw Drought at the New York/Avignon Film Festival, then on the Independent Film Channel. The second time was better than the first time, and the first time I was agape. Lisa Moncure directed the short based on a book by Debra Di Blasi (of the same title) that I also read. The translation from page to screen is remarkably successful, capturing the bleak midwestern landscape scorched by drought and a man and woman scorched by a failing ranch and failing love. Visually exquisite, with subtle and emotionally compelling sound design. Jack Conley (Traffic, L.A.Confidential) brings a desperate intelligence to the role of Kale, and Jessika Cardinahl is gorgeous as a woman weighted by a past memory and the present inexorable force of nature. I'd really like to see Moncure tackle a feature to see if Drought is a wonderful accident or proof of greatness to come.

A poignant and piercing love story. Visually arresting with an attention to detail so acute it mesmerises. It makes you smile and it makes you cry - true cinema. A lyrical and profound observation of love desire and lost illusions, it is striking in the intelligence and astuteness of observation and understanding.

Rarely screened and only at festivals this is an incredibly refreshing and sensitive film told with such a unique voice it is screaming for a wider audience.