UNDERTOW

Director David Gordon Green / 2004 / USA

"David Gordon Green goes Southern gothic. John (Dermot Mulroney) lives in the Georgia backwoods with his two boys - teenage Chris (Jamie Bell) and tiny Tim who sometimes wears a pilgrim hat and compulsively eats mud and paint, explaining that 'it's an anxiety disorder.' The menage is menaced by the appearance of John's ex-con brother Deel; exacerbated by hidden gold and Philip Glass music, sibling rivalry turns murderous." - J. Hoberman, Village Voice

"Green's film sinks its characters into a swamp of naturalism and then sends them on a nightmarish journey through a landscape that seems both real and magical: a rural Deep South terrain full of sun-seared forests, rotting junkyards and small farms reeking with manure, old junk and neglect.

"With its fairytale structure, taut story and rich atmosphere, it's reminiscent of The Night of the Hunter - though it's shot in the style of American 70s rural movie crime dramas such as Deliverance or Badlands. Seething with violence, bleeding with lyricism, it's a poem from the junk heap, a cry from the swamp." - Chicago Tribune

Undertow was produced by Terrence Malick.

David Gordon Green will be attending the festival.


D/S David Gordon Green P Lisa Muskat, Terrence Malick, Richard R. Pressman S Joe Conway WS Content International TD 35mm/col/ 2004/108mins

David Gordon Green was born in Arkansas, USA, in 1975 . His films include George Washington (MIFF 00), All the Real Girls (2003).

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