Stop The Pounding Heart

Roberto Minervini is an Italian director who elected to share this sensitive coming of age story about 14 year old girl in a family of goat farmers in Texas. Without the benefits of a cast of actors he manages to create not a documentary but instead a quiet observation of what life is like in the rural parts of a too fast world – a place where values are different if not always better.

Sara is a young girl raised in a family of goat farmers. Her parents home-school their twelve children, rigorously following the precepts of the Bible. Like her sisters, Sara is taught to be a devout woman, subservient to men while keeping her emotional and physical purity intact until marriage. When Sara meets Colby, a young amateur bull rider, she is thrown into crisis, questioning the only way of life she has ever known. STOP THE POUNDING HEART is an exploration of adolescence, family and social values, gender roles, and religion in the rural American South. With minimal dialogue, amateur non-actors, and majestically beautiful cinematography this is a film that is a pastoral. It deserves our attention.