Take Me to the River
Ryder is forced to drive with his parents from California to a family reunion in Nebraska. On the way, tensions rise about the teenager's "secret," which, according to his loving mother, should not see the light of day. After arriving at his grandmother's house, Ryder clearly stands out among the other relatives and is only able to communicate with his cousin, Molly. But when the girl suddenly comes back crying and refuses to say what happened, Ryder becomes the main suspect in a strange family game where the family's dark past is the main theme. In his debut film, director Matt Sobel masterfully builds cinematic tension within the closed circle of relatives we intimately follow on-screen. Sobel exploits motifs of cultural differences, intolerance and the spontaneous nature of a lynching to expose how the past influences successive generations and becomes a source of hate toward everything different. In 2014, this film project received the "US in Progress" Award during the American Film Festival coproduction fair.
Matt Sobel
Hel is a screenwriter, director and producer. He debuted in 2015 with the feature-length film Take Me to the River, which premiered at the 2015 Sundance Festival. He previously produced short films such as X to Y and Oyster, the latter being the story of two sisters who escape drab reality into a world of dreams while living with their father and grandmother in Chinatown. In 2014, as part of the fourth edition of the US in Progress coproduction fair at the American Film Festival in Wrocław, Sobel's project Take Me to the River received the Ale kino+ and the Producers' Network at Cannes Awards.
Filmography
2009 X to Y (short)
2012 Oyster (short)
2015 Zabierz mnie nad rzekę / Take Me to the River
