Take a revealing look at the search for paradise in America
with the lyrical new feature motion picture
Sleeping Pills
Within America's suburbs, the search for
paradise takes an unnerving detour
through the jammed intersection where
love and life collide. One man pursues
cutting-edge solutions to modern gridlock,
while trying to resolve the human side of
the equation. Yet his identity and sense of
community are tested in the process.
In his pivotal position at a futuristic civil engineering firm, Tarika
Knight seems right at home with jigsaw puzzle design theory. But
his boss Charlotte cannot see that his competence belies a
displacement from typical patterns of life and love -- drawing him
into a misfit cult of perpetual adolescence. Are they the substitute
for the family he never had? Will his romantic pursuits jeopardize
his career?
Tarika rides the electric rail between the sense of security he
needs and the freedom he both craves and dreads.
official selection
Cairo International Film Festival
Sleeping Pills
(USA, 2003, Color, 35mm, 85 minutes)
Sleeping Pills is a portrait of
America that is both familiar and
surreal. A prophetic testament
to the readily disposable
landmarks of our cities, Sleeping
Pills is set among building which
in less than a few decades have
become ancients relics. Is our
cardboard dream-city destined to
be tomorrow’s ghetto?
The characters' discussion of
'ephemeral architecture' is
poignant since the majority of
buildings and locations seen in
the film are now gone –
demolished or otherwise erased
from the landscape - making
Sleeping Pills a historical
document of quickly vanishing
Americana.
Starring:
Jonathan Chalker
Melissa London
Lea Downey
Directed by:
Michael Lauter