It is about a small fundamentalist Christian sect in Texas...Sara, a 14 year old girl, still with braces on her lower teeth is coming of age. She is the oldest of 12 children. She milks and cares for the goats on her farm. She helps home school the younger kids. She practices shooting with an automatic rifle. She helps her Mom sell goat products at farmers markets..She meets a young cowboy in the same sect..They walk. She seems to be grim faced always. She rarely smiles. There is no music, no radio, no TV...The Bible is literally their entire life...
Most everything is understated or not explained...She meets with her friends to prepare for their coming out ceremony...For this, they dress as if they were living in the covered wagon age..They talk..To our surprise, she states that her future goals are unclear, but - she never wants to get married!!
Her mother tells her that a woman's greatest achievement is to totally submit to her husband...(The women are always pregnant)....She witnesses a woman giving birth in a pool of water, her husband holding and caressing her, other sect members lovingly attending to her.
Frankly, I have never witnessed anything like it - although it is not a 'Christian' ritual. Her mother senses Sara's doubts, and says that it is OK to have doubts. The movie ends with Sara dressed in a long white gown, beautiful and serene, looking ouotward.
Stop The Pounding Heart
One of the reviews on Metacritic says that this is part of a "Texas trilogy" by the same director.
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