Bloodlines

There are moments in life when you suddenly have to make a decision that will change everything. Two boys work a remote ranch in New Mexico with their excessively stern father. He is a strong man with a face like dark granite who commands his sons with the most minimal of gestures. They do not even dare speak. When one of their calves is killed by a wolf the boys set off to hunt it down, hoping that this will earn them their father’s respect. But once they track down the wolf they discover that, far from being an evil beast, it is a shy, vulnerable creature that is both graceful and attractive. The older boy with the gun hesitates. Should he really kill this animal? Is it right? Without a single word of dialogue, this film manages to describe the boys’ deep-seated conflicts; their need to belong and the question of whether there might be another kind of life than the one led by their father and his forebears.