Gerry

Two kids who call each other Gerry (Matt Damon and Casey Affleck) park their car on the edge of a desert. They are going trekking. To avoid the tourists, they leave the beaten track and then get hopelessly lost. What was intended as an afternoon stroll in the country, turns into a dangerous journey lasting days in which the couple are at the mercy of the elements. In heat and cold, without food or water, they stumble on.
After making several major productions in the Hollywood system, Gus Van Sant says that in this case he was inspired by film makers like Béla Tarr, Chantal Akerman and Derek Jarman, who choose not to flood their viewers with action and flashy images and to give the spectator time to interpret. Van Sant puts aside all Hollywood conventions by making the story subservient to the pictures and consciously keeping down the tempo. There was no complete script: the two actors thought up the dialogues with Van Sant on the set. The unconventional use of time and the few dialogues between the two Gerrys create a form of minimalist cinema. The spectacular landscape plays a major role: they filmed in Death Valley and parts of Salt Lake. The music by Arvo Pärt also shows just how effective a few simple piano notes can be.