Krisha
Description
Winner of the Grand Jury and Audience awards for narrative features at SXSW, this debut tour de force, developed by Trey Edward Shults from his prize-winning short of the same name, drops the viewer into a Thanksgiving gathering bubbling under with potential emotional hazard. The slightly frazzled Krisha (a brilliant performance by Shults’ real-life aunt) is greeted warmly, if somewhat warily, when she arrives at the well-appointed suburban Texas home of her relatives. Amid upbeat references to a fresh start, Krisha still shows troubling signs of instability: a missing finger; a toolkit of medications secured with a key around her neck, an insistent need to re-connect with estranged kin. Shults conveys the growing pressures of family dynamics on Krisha’s volatile psyche with bravura filmmaking—bold camerawork, expressive cutting and a tension-building percussive soundtrack—until the mildest slight feels like the pin being pulled on an emotional grenade.
Trey Edward Shults was born and raised in Houston, Texas. He began his filmmaking career interning on Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life and working in the camera department for Malick’s forthcoming documentary Voyage of Time. He has directed three short films, including the originating short for his first feature film Krisha. Speaking about his debut, Shults says, “To me, the heart of the film is about someone who is at war with her own self – someone who desperately wants to be loved, but doesn’t love herself yet.”
Film Details
Language English
Year 2015
Runtime 82
Country USA
Director Trey Edward Shults
Producer Justin R. Chan, Trey Edward Shults, Wilson Smith, Chase Joliet
Writer Trey Edward Shults
Editor Trey Edward Shults
Cinematographer Drew Daniels
Music Brian McOmber
Cast Krisha Fairchild, Robyn Fairchild, Bill Wise