BENTEN FILMS presents
The Guatemalan Handshake
A Film by Todd Rohal
Two-Disc Special Edition DVD
in stores everywhere!
[ORDER THE DVD NOW]
"A revelation! The Guatemalan Handshake holds a place in my heart that is normally reserved for Easter candy."
- Jared Hess, director of NAPOLEON DYNAMITE
"Invention and personality to spare! Not to mention marvelous mysteries, quirky connections and cockeyed running gags that Rohal effortlessly weaves into the design of the crazy quilt comedy."
- Sean Axmaker, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
One of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film, writer-director Todd Rohal charts strange new cinematic waters with his madly innovative feature debut, The Guatemalan Handshake. Winner of Special Jury Prizes at Slamdance and Torino, Rohal's vivacious feast for the senses "bristles with his anarchic visual language, offbeat humor, ephemeral sense of narrative, circuitous character sketches, and freewheeling sense of mirth" (Baltimore City Paper). The Guatemalan Handshake has landed in stores as a Two-Disc Special Edition DVD from Benten FilmsIn the confusion following a massive power outage in small-town America, human doormat Donald Turnupseed (actor-musician Will Oldham, Old Joy) suddenly vanishes, setting in motion a surreal series of events affecting his hapless father, his pregnant girlfriend, a pack of wild boy scouts, a lactose-intolerant roller rink employee, an elderly woman in search of her lost poodle, and his best friend: a ten-year-old girl named Turkeylegs.
Narrated by young Turkeylegs as she pieces together Donald's puzzling disappearance, Rohal's rural tapestry explodes in unforgettable widescreen surprises: a woman attends her own funeral, a childhood TV legend leaps from a cliff, the sun rises sideways, and a bright orange, wedge-shaped electric car changes hands again and again. Chaotically absurd with an underlying poignancy, these droll vignettes come crashing together in a climactic demolition derby that marks the exhilarating debut of an adventurous storyteller.
BENTEN FILMS is passionate about bringing the best in independent and world cinema to the North American DVD market. The brainchild of Andrew Grant (best known in the New York scene as "Filmbrain," online editor of Like Anna Karina's Sweater) in collaboration with Aaron Hillis (a freelance journalist for The Village Voice, Premiere and IFC News), Benten is a specialty label designed for cinephiles to uncover lost masterpieces and future classics, with an eye on overlooked gems that deserve greater recognition. All Benten releases will be of the highest technical quality, each supplemented with enhanced features and artful packaging. Upcoming Benten releases include Todd Rohal's The Guatemalan Handshake and Matthias Glasner's controversial German drama The Free Will (Der Freie Wille). For more information, please visit www.bentenfilms.com.
PRAISE for Benten's first release: Joe Swanberg's LOL
- About.com (One of the Top Ten DVDs of 2007!)
- DVD Beaver ("Very impressive… This is such a unique and professional work - it certainly deserves a wide audience. It is all at once kind of 'cool,' poignant and simple as some of the best works of cinema tend to be. Recommended!")
- DVD Times ("Benten Films ... state on their website that they intend to put out 'overlooked gems that deserve greater recognition' and that all of their releases will be 'of the highest technical quality, each supplemented with enhanced features and artful packaging'. That is certainly the case with their release of Joe Swanberg’s LOL.")
- Slant Magazine ("LOL is treated as if it were Citizen Kane by newbie distributor Benten Films.")
- DVD Talk (Recommended Pick)
