Documentary film-maker Alma Har’el follows her extraordinary debut, Bombay Beach, with another picture that weaves together real life with dramatisation to poetic effect. While not quite as focused or poignant as her debut, this film explores love and faith through three very different stories. In Hawaii, William is struggling to come to terms with the fact that the son he adores is not his biological child. In Alaska, Blake’s self-worth is both boosted and undermined by her work as a stripper. And in New York, Victory and her seven musically talented siblings are grieving for their parents’ marriage, shattered after their father had an affair. Perhaps the most intriguing device is not just the fact that Har’el uses actors to speculate about the past and future of certain characters, she also interviews those actors about the experience of playing these roles.
