"The beauty of the land cannot mask the brutality of a farm town. As harvest draws near, determined matriarch Betty (Joanne Kelly, TV’s Hostages) confronts a few harsh realities: a failing business, her husband’s deteriorating health, and a family home on the brink of foreclosure. When presented with an illegal but well-compensated job offer (already turned down by her husband), Betty meets the challenge head-on. In Runoff, first-time writer/director Kimberly Levin follows Betty’s perseverance with astonishing narrative economy and bristling tension, anchored by Kelly’s indomitable central turn.
Please describe Runoff in your own words.
Kimberly Levin: The story unfolds in a place where on the surface there’s a pastoral beauty—it’s harvest time, the season is changing, the kids are making their costumes, getting ready for Halloween. But just beneath is the brutal reality of a farming town. Betty discovers a crisis threatening her family. Each way she tries to make things right is going to lead to someone getting hurt. In the end, she has to decide who to put first and who to sacrifice."