Q&A: Meskada

Beautiful in its rawness, Meskada feels shabby, right down to the quality of film. That's simply one way director Josh Sternfeld (Winter Solstice, TFF '04) draws you into the themes of poverty and struggle in his tale of two towns located in Meskada County: one rich, one very poor. The contrast between these American communities is stark: Hilliard is affluent, Caswell on the brink of destitution. After a young boy is accidentally murdered during a burglary in Hilliard, a clue leads the investigation to Detective Noah Corbin's own hometown of Caswell, on the other side of the county.

Sternfeld says for months he mulled over the idea of doing a police drama, but wanted to figure out a way to bring something unique to the story. At the time, the director said he was reading a lot about wars between the Native Americans and the first English colonists. "It was all about territory and it was about land and lines of demarcation between places," Sternfeld said. "The more I thought about it, the more I realized that's kind of what I could do with the genre, try to say something about place, and America."

The film addresses very adult problems like murder and money, but also casts an eye on young children—one dead, one with an ear affliction so severe, he is in serious need of surgery. When asked about the role of children in the movie, Sternfeld admitted he was using them to demonstrate another of Meskada’s main themes. "Children get kind of mixed up in things that are really of the adult world, and they wind up paying a lot of prices for a lot of things: fear, insecurity, vengeance, it's always the next generation," he said.

Sternfeld's shooting technique is subtle. Much like cracking a homicide case, it's all in the details. For instance, a shot where the camera struggles to focus for a split second or the way the land in Caswell is so rich and green, but the houses are decidedly poor—all serve to highlight the collision of so many opposites.

The acting in the movie (including erstwhile Twilight vampire Kellan Lutz) is equally discrete yet powerful, bringing to life a cast of characters with no shortage of helplessness, frustration and rage buried below the surface. Several of Meskada’s lead actors were in the audience to answer questions following the premiere. The crowd broke into laughter when Sternfeld's own mom raised her hand to ask them why they had decided to work on the film. "Your son!" said actor Jonathan Tucker, pointing at the director. "It was all your son."
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~Robstenfan