Magic Valley

About the film

On a sleepy late summer day in the small town of Buhl, Idaho, two young boys find the body of a teenage girl on a sunlit meadow. At the same time, a young lad is restlessly driving around the town's streets on his skateboard, burdened by a dark and painful secret, while the local fish breeder sees his little fish farm being hit by an ominous disaster. The town's teenagers are suffering hardcore small-town boredom, and spend their time trying to provoke fainting spells. With their blasé attitudes, the two small boys find themselves a somewhat odd playmate, who like another Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks unites all the characters in 'Magic Valley'. The director Jaffe Zinn lets his stylish debut unfold like a fresh memory, imbued with bright blue and yellow colours, while the soundtrack buzzes like a calm but sinister undercurrent. Like a silent version of the indie classic 'Gummo', Zinn uses a becoming sense of aloofness to show an evocative snapshot of the time just before life takes an unexpected turn, and how a small community that is paralysed with boredom is on the verge of a tragic awakening.