Twentynine Palms

A young couple take a road trip through the Californian desert towards a shocking climax in Bruno Dumont’s stripped-back horror.

American photographer (David Wissak) and his Russian girlfriend (Katerina Golubeva) drift through the desert, scouting locations for a shoot and communicating through minimal dialogue and maximal body language. Lingering takes, long silences, languid days all set within the empty, arid landscape make the horror, when it comes, feel even more jarring.

Bruno Dumont’s film polarised critics, prompted walkouts and was considered a key title in the New French Extremity movement. It followed his 1999 festival favourite and triple-Cannes-prizewinner ‘Humanity’.