The year is 1870 on the New Mexican frontier, where the wounds of the Civil War are still fresh. Her father recently dead, Martha and her husband Heck plan to leave poverty and devastation behind and start a new life in San Francisco. But before they can sell the family ranch to a mining company, her older brother Wade, thought to be killed in the war, returns. As the secrets between brother and sister gradually come to light, tensions rise and the plans of what remains of their battered family become less and less clear. In his first feature film, independent american filmmaker Jared Moshe takes on a double challenge: reviving the western—in 35mm! And yet there is nothing of the nostalgic museum piece in this historical drama of rare formal elegance. Superbly photographed by Robert Hauer in natural settings and Malickian autumn shades, Deadman’s Burden marries the epic with the intimate, balancing the classic western with the brutal realities of the era. With this film, Moshe immerses himself in the fascinating territory of moral ambiguity and the ultimate complexity of american identity.