Off the Map

[duchess of malfi]

One of my friends is really into odd little indie movies, so when she handed a dvd to me last night and told me to go home and watch it, I accepted it with a bit of trepidation. You never know with her if you will be getting an unknown gem, or something too strange to be watchable.

This one was a bit on the weird side, but I really did enjoy it.

It tells a coming of age story of a little girl in New Mexico. Her dad has clinical depression; her mother is a free spirit who likes to work in their garden naked. They somehow live on her dad's VA pension of $5000/year. They live in the middle of nowhere with no running water or phone or electricity. They grow a lot of their food and hunt for the rest. If they need something like dental work done they barter for it, and they scavenge in the local dump.

More than anything Bo wants her father to feel better and start being her father again. She also wants to live a more normal, mainline lifestyle.

The lives of this family change when an auditor from the IRS comes to audit their finances.

The film also serves as a lovely visual poem to the beauties of the state of New Mexico.