MA Breakthrough

Director Celia Rowlson-Hall uses her background as a choreographer to create MA, a modern-day retelling of Mother Mary’s pilgrimage. Here the Virgin figure is Ma (Rowlson-Hall), a lanky woman who emerges from the desert wearing only a T-shirt, cowboy boots and head towel. She falls in with a similarly lonesome man, and they spend the next few days acting out hyperbolic representations of masculinity, femininity, aggression and submission within a roadside motel room. In an admirably gutsy move, Rowlson-Hall has made the film dialogue-free, a decision that proves brilliant as the meticulously composed cinematography and wild, seething, push-and-pull choreography of the characters speak volumes. Rowlson-Hall peppers the film with recognizable indie faces and the lithe, graceful bodies of dancers to tell a story about gender, power and the bleak spaces of Americana. When Ma reaches her destination, it is nothing short of stunning. — Beth Hanna