Blessing

A moody drama set on a failing family farm, BLESSING pits 23-year-old Randi (Melora Griffis), who covets the lifestyles of the rich and famous, against her embittered parents. Randi's affair with a free-spirited milkman (Gareth Williams) is the catalyst that brings all the family's long-submerged tensions to a boil. This low-budget, low-key film is a welcome antidote to pop cultural fantasies of gingham curtains, happy farm animals, and butter fresh from the churn. The countryside may be beautiful, suggests writer/director Paul Zehrer in his debut feature, but life on a real farm is dirty, hard, boring, and claustrophobic.