synopsis

Short synopsis:
Melody (Barbara Hershey) returns home to Fairlands for the funeral of her estranged daughter June. But the town has almost disappeared under the encroaching desert. She also has to confront the fact that she has a 10 year old grandson, River, whose existence she knew nothing about. Melody decides to take River away with her but he is resistant. He has worked out an ambitious plan to survive, by breeding the ostriches he and his mother used to feed. Also his father, Scoop, an idle musician and the town’s postman, wants her to leave because he has a secret to hide. A series of confrontations ensues until Melody discovers the truth. It’s only when a sandstorm forces Melody and River to take shelter together, that Melody faces some painful facts from her past, which allows both of them to reach an understanding and to begin a new future together.

Long synopsis:
After years of working abroad, Melody, an ageing hotel chef, goes home to the small desert town called Fairlands, to attend the funeral of her estranged daughter, June. When she gets there, she discovers she has a grandson, River, about whose existence her daughter never told her. Melody wonders why…

To her amazement, the once-prosperous town of Fairlands is now completely run down; it’s been swallowed up by the encroaching desert, leaving most of the buildings half-buried under drifts of deep red sand, including the famous Paradise Hotel, of which only the lettering still stands out above the sand. Almost all the people Melody once knew have left or died; only a bizarre handful of women, with their children, remains, cheerfully gossiping away. They’re the wives of the prospectors who manage to scratch a living from the abandoned diamond-fields, coming home once a month with their meager finds. The small gang of feral children that run through the town like a pack of wild dogs, is organised under the leadership of River, who has worked out an ambitious plan to raise an army with ostriches, by hatching the eggs and breed tamed birds to ride on.

Shocked by the slovenly state of the place, Melody is convinced that she must take River away with her and raise him properly. But River resists her; since the death of his mother, he’s spinning out of control. Scoop, River’s father, is a crippled idle musician and the local postman, who strikes a declining attitude against his mother-in-law. Melody’s rather demanding character doesn’t go down well in this small society, and both River and Scoop persist in their denial of her.

In one of her attempts to win River’s favour, Melody buys up the last items, including an ostrich egg, in the local store, in order to bake a pie. When River finds out that the egg got cold, he freaks out. In a last attempt Melody brings him the pie, but her grandson won’t take the bait and curses her. Scoop’s reaction again is rather aggressive. Melody decides to leave and feed the pie to the pair of hungry ostriches that haunts June’s house.

On her way out Melody discovers Scoop is a swindler; he lied about June and intercepted all her letters, as well as Melody’s. She returns and confronts him, while outside a storm is getting up. At the same moment River convinces his gang to attack the house. A huge sandstorm hits the town, while River & Friends catapult stones on the house; it all gets out of hand.

Melody and Scoop manage to escape and go out to search for River. Soon they loose each other in the drifts.

Scoop is being killed on the graveyard, by an ostrich protecting her nest full of eggs. Meanwhile Melody finds River, lost in the sandstorm. Together they fall down into the Paradise Hotel, buried deep beneath the sand.

Here Melody is brought face to face with her past, uncovering some painful memories about herself, as well as about her daughter. Melody and River, in this forgotten underworld, are finally beginning to reach an understanding, centred around the loss of June.

When next morning they find out Scoop is dead, Melody knows there is only one thing she can do for River….