I loved Loot by Darius Marder, the documentary competition winner at this year’s Los Angeles Film Festival. Marder was in the Spotlight on Documentary program the year I managed it (2006), so as you’ve read here before, I enjoy catching up with them and seeing how things have come together. I remember thinking that this particular film had story challenges. The main subject is Lance. You have to wonder when you meet Lance if he is for real–the first scene of the film shows him digging a deep hole in the middle of nowhere looking for buried treasure and saying he has spent a bunch of money on this odd project. Where did he get all this money, and how crazy is it to think he might really discover buried treasure? Well, this sets up the story beautifully but it also put questions into my mind that were never fully answered. But that is a-okay.

It really doesn’t matter who Lance is or if he is “for real,” because the movie is about journeys and relationships. Lance is acquainted with two World War II veterans, who each, independently of each other and Lance, stole valuable property during the war and hid it so that they could retrieve it later. Now well into their sunset years, can Lance help them find it? That is the premise of the film, but if you get hung up in the search for the treasure, you miss how much these men mean to each other and how beautiful it can be for your own existence to open up and listen to the stories of your elders.

The cinematography and pacing of the parallel storylines kept me enraptured as the stories unfolded. Marder solved his narrative structure issues in a simple yet beautiful way. He doesn’t try to created complicated relationships, he simply highlights the inherent interweaving of these stories. There are unanswered questions, and I left before Q&A because I didn’t want to listen to people asking them. I wanted the film to linger with me. Congrats to Marder and crew on taking home the top jury prize from the festival.

indieWIRE interview with director Darius Marder