Runner

Synopsis

In this visually stunning, quietly commanding feature debut, a soft-spoken 18-year-old nicknamed Haas—Dutch for “hare” or “runner”—leaves the plains of her rural Missouri farming community to bury her father in his Illinois hometown. There, amid the wheat fields and dusty roads, she meets Will, a lonely, creative soul with whom she immediately feels an intimate connection. Awash with unspoken emotion and beautifully photographed foreboding landscapes, Runner draws subtle drama from stark elements, evoking the early impressionist cinema of Terrence Malick. With this poetic story of first love, Chicago native Marian Mathias has crafted an exquisitely realized depiction of lives lived in a state of precariousness, between death and life, poverty and promise.