One of the most visually striking independent films of the decade, reminiscent of the work by the great Terrance Malick, Two Gates of Sleep is an American independent masterpiece.

Somewhere on the Mississippi-Louisiana border, backwoodsman brothers Jack and Louis prepare for their mother's impending death. They set out on a grueling upriver journey to honor her final request. Writer/director Alistair Banks Griffin’s debut feature shuns American film conventions through exactingly spare narrative techniques that magnify the tension and melancholy in every frame. Two Gates of Sleep is a small wonder of a film, a work of rare beauty that calls attention to seldom seen customs of the rural South. This visual meditation on nature, death and tradition paints a shattering portrait of a family overcoming extraordinary circumstances to honor a last request - marking the arrival of director Alistair Banks Griffin as an urgent and welcome new voice in American independent cinema. -- Steve Saturn