Savagery, betrayal, and revenge govern the desolate landscape of Perez’s (THE BIG EMPTY) third film, a haunting, character-driven neo-noir spiked with black comedy. American ex-patriot Walter Pool is a broken man living in obscurity in a dusty tin shack on the edge of Santiago, Mexico. Writer’s block prevents him from finishing — or starting — his novel, and alcoholism keeps him trapped in a nightmarish mire of dementia and squalor. Convinced he can sink no lower, he’s resigned to waste away, imprisoned by the demons of his past. But when a mysterious stranger offers him $100,000 to settle a score with an alleged rapist, Pool is given a reason to live — if it doesn’t kill him. Winner of the Feature Film Award at the 1998 Austin Film Festival.