Dust (2020)

Rachel, her father David, and adopted brother Isaac flee an attack on their home that leaves David disabled, and everyone traumatised.

When they arrive at Janice’s farm, they are welcomed in and given asylum. While David convalesces, Janice asks Rachel to marry her youngest son, Caleb. With the offer of marriage looming over her, she learns of hidden tensions within the family, slowly illuminating cracks in the happy facade Janice seems intent on living. Rachel is determined to go North, where rumours tell of a landless blighted than the one they live in.

David regains consciousness, but he struggles with survivors’ guilt, feeling responsible for the death of Rachel’s mother. When Rachel tells him about Janice’s offer, he entertains the idea of staying and becoming family. With the pressures to stay mounting, Rachel must decide how to deal with the growing tension around her, while maintaining her autonomy in the face of everyone’s expectations of her.

As the relationships grow deeper, the stalemate between leaving and staying becomes more and more untenable.