Filmhouse/New Kalamata Cinema Club-TRAIN DREAMS

Based on the novel of the same name by the great American writer Dennis Johnson, TRAIN DREAMS, only the second film by the highly talented Clint Bentley, narrates with unique sensitivity and clarity – somewhere between elegy and hymn – the adult life of a simple man at the beginning of the last century, from the summer of 1917 in the forests of the Northwestern USA until approximately the flight of Apollo 8 around the Moon in 1968, an event that the hero, now elderly, observes on a storefront television during one of his rare visits to a big city.

But most of the film takes place on the border, in nature, among the trees, where the lumberjack central character spends his hours among his colleagues, who form an exquisite troupe (or a dance of ancient tragedy) at night around the fire.

With obvious influences from the cinema of Terrence Malick, Bentley infuses his film, flooded with exquisite frames, with the texture of a recurring dream or a persistent memory, but what causes the most incredible awe is the way he balances the roughness of reality with the lyricism of imagination.

Somewhere between an elegy and a hymn, “Train Dreams” is a delicate, atmospheric and moving drama with unforgettable images and excellent performances - a masterpiece and one of the films of the year.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11th
TRAIN DREAMS
Drama | 13+ | 2025 | USA | 102’
Director: Clint Bentley
Starring: Joel Edgerton, Clifton Collins Jr., Felicity Jones
21:15