ABOUT THE PROJECT

LOGLINE
Joey (Lola Kirke) joins the Army as a way out of Pennsylvania coal country just as she falls in love with magnetic housewife Rayna (Breeda Wool).

SYNOPSIS
Lola Kirke (Mozart in the Jungle, Mistress America) shines as Joey, an aimless high school graduate searching for a way out of Pennsylvania coal country. A visit to an Army recruiting office appears to provide a path, but a chance encounter with magnetic Rayna (“UnReal”’s Breeda Wool), a slyly seductive housewife and mother neglected by her long-haul trucker husband, changes Joey’s trajectory irrevocably. As Joey falls ever more deeply in love with Rayna, clouded judgment leads her down a path from which she can’t turn back. With winning lead performances from Kirke and Wool and a strong supporting cast (Dale Soules, Britne Oldford, Bill Sage, Ted Welch), director Deb Shoval’s muscular feature film debut is a splendid and brooding meditation on the boundless possibilities of first love constricted by the trials of rural poverty. AWOL premiered in competition at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2016, and is based on a short film, also titled AWOL, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011.

PROJECT TYPE Narrative Feature

DIRECTOR Deb Shoval
SCREENWRITER Deb Shoval, Karolina Waclawiak
PRODUCER LA Teodosio, Jessica Caldwell, Michel Merkt

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