Saltwater

Under the thick gray fog and rain clouds of a San Francisco winter, Jenny's wedding approaches. She adores her fiancé, but is on edge about something she can't quite put her finger on. Then she finds an old photograph of her grandmother in her wedding dress, and everything seems to fall into place. She knows she must get married in that dress. Jenny's fears and doubt ignite into an obsessive journey to her estranged aunt's home at the Salton Sea, an environmentally devastated and long forgotten vacation spot, in search of the dress. In the blazing arid heat of this decimated landscape, and amid piles and piles of three generations of her family's hoarding, Jenny searches; looking for the dress, looking for her family's past, and looking for herself. In the brightness of the desert there is nowhere to hide and Jenny is forced to make some of the hardest decisions of her life so that she can realize her future.

Directed by Lise Swenson, Saltwater leans on a strong ensemble — Michael X. Sommers, AnnieScott Rogers, Richard Gross — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.

The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about screen titles of 2017.