Shotgun Stories

Son Hayes has these really nasty scars on hisback, and no one knows how he got them. Heand his two brothers, Boy and Kid Hayes, wereleft alone at a young age by a violent father,who didn’t even give them proper names, witha mother, who let her sadness turn to hate –giving her some ease at least. Mr. Hayes, on theother hand, has become a good Christian with anamazing wife and four new kids with real names.He is successful in work and in social life. Whenhe dies, the two families meet at the funeral,and as the underlying anger manifests in afight – starting with Son spitting on his father’scasket – each one of them goes to extremesto protect their own family’s reality. Varietycalled Jeff Nichols’ remarkable debut story ofa rural countryside family dispute turned fatala “point-blank buckshot blast of inarticulate American rage, played with the disarminglyplacid inevitability of Greek tragedy”. SoutheastArkansas sets the stage; on its back roads andcotton fields a tragic and violent tale is told.

Premiere Status
Swedish Premiere: Cast
Michael Shannon, Douglas Ligon, Barlow Jacobs: Producer
David Gordon Green, Lisa Muskot, Jeff Nichols: Script
Jeff Nichols: Cinematography
Adam Stone: Music
Lucero, Pyramid: Spoken language
English