Medeas

This award-winning entry to the 2014 Seattle International Film Festival was submitted by Italy/Mexico (in English, no captions). The awards include Best Director - Marrakesh Film Festival 2013, and New Voices/New Visions Award - Palm Springs Film Festival 2014. Andrea Pallaoro is the writer/director; I ponder how one would manage a dairy farm during a prolonged drought.

Here is the cast:

• Catalina Sandino Moreno ("Mary Full of Grace") Christina is the hearing-impaired wife of a dairy farmer.
• Brian F. O'Bryne ("Prime Suspect") Ennis can't pay the feed bill for his cows.
• Kevin Alejandro ("Arrow") Noah owns a service station and is having sex with Christina.

This is described as "a simmering evocation of marital discord...." At risk of a few spoilers, here's the situation:

• This couple has five children and another on the way.
• The teenage girl is discovering her sexuality.
• The teenage boy has discovered centerfolds and Dad's rifle.
• The middle boy does a rain chant.
• The dog is pestered into nipping, then taken out and abandoned.
• The farmer seems to be losing his vision in one eye.
• The pace varies from leisurely to glacial.
• Dialogue is practically nonexistent.
• Most of these endless scenes do not add anything but dread.
• Grandpa is in a nursing home and is non compos mentis.

My view:

• There are too many dairy cows for a one-man operation.
• The dog is so dumb it can't jump out of a pickup.
• Most of the scenes are so mundane I wondered why they were included...HOWEVER...many of them are beautifully framed, lit and photographed. That must be the award-worthy direction.

Do NOT waste 98 minutes on this dreary thing; it will feel like three hours! Everything about this tragedy promises doom and gloom...and then keeps its promise!