White of Winter

Director: Robert Saitzyk
Screenwriters: Robert Saitzyk

Institute History

  • 2003 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Growing up in Montana, Rachel and Tommy were more than best friends—they where soulmates. But, in high school, they experience a violent tragic event that severs their ties. Years later, Rachel sees Tommy's face as a bit actor on a rented video, which reawakens all that she tried to keep buried inside for so many years. She sets out to find Tommy, and together they embark on an uneasy journey home.

White of Winter is a meditative and stirring film that flows across the screen like a painting. Director Robert Saitzyk has an expert grasp of digital photography, and he manipulates light and imagery for maximum effect, turning the beautiful, stark winter landscape of Montana into a vivid hue of its own. The style meshes fluidly with the story to tell a tale of the importance of healing and the destructiveness of guilt.

The entire cast is superb, especially Zoe Poledouris and Bret Roberts, who give the film integrity with layered, controlled performances as two damaged people coming to terms with their disjointed past. What they discover in this barren emotional and physical landscape is that, for all its despair, clinging to hope can make life bearable.

— John Cooper

Screening Details

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