SHOEBOX ｜ Omeleto

A young girl cares for ducklings. Five-year-old Beth is the youngest child of a large family, growing up on a family farm in 1980s Pennsylvania. Life on the farm is beautiful in many ways, with a sense of natural beauty and the space to explore. But the farm can also be a harsh place, where animals that didn't serve their purpose did not survive. Little Beth struggles feeling like a small part of a large family with no role to play. So when she comes across four duck eggs, she designates their caretaker, and shepherds them to hatching into little ducklings. But despite her efforts, the ducks can't quite escape the farm's unsentimental ethos, and Beth soon understands the full import and weight of her self-appointed role. Writer/director Michael Killen -- along with co-writer Elisabeth Voltz, who adapted the script from her own book SHOEBOX FUNERAL -- unfurls its drama beautifully through gently poetic images and sensitively observed performances, creating a moving, meditative tale of innocence, wisdom and identity that is both simple and profound in feeling and execution. The story is guided by a voiceover of an older Beth reflecting on this period in her childhood, as she tries to find her place in a large family, often lagging behind with no one seeming to wonder about her. Though there's clearly love and care in the group, she still often falls to the margins of such a large, busy family and can't help but draw parallels between herself and the small, weaker animals on the farm, and there's an ache and maturity in the voice and writing that sits in the liminal space between nostalgia and reflection.