''The Guatemalan Handshake'' is a 2006 comedy-drama film, written and directed by Todd Rohal. It is Rohal's

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

debut. The film premiered at the 2006

Slamdance Film Festival The Slamdance Film Festival is an annual film festival focused on emerging artists. The annual week-long festival is held in Los Angeles in late February and is the main event organized by the year-round Slamdance organization. The organization ...

and won the Special Jury Prize.

Story

In the confusion following a massive power outage, an awkward

demolition derby Demolition derby is a type of motorsport, usually presented at county fairs and national events. While rules vary from event to event, the typical demolition derby event consists of five or more drivers competing by deliberately ramming their v ...

driver vanishes, setting in motion a series of events affecting his pregnant girlfriend, his helplessly car-less father, a pack of wild boy scouts, a lactose intolerant roller rink employee, an elderly woman in search of her lost dog, and his best friend—a ten-year-old girl named Turkeylegs. Pieces of the mystery begin to come together as Turkeylegs sets out to find her missing friend. Cars drive circles in the dirt, a woman attends her own funeral, the sun rises sideways and an orange vehicle trades hands again and again. Everything eventually culminates in a massive demolition derby that throws all of the characters into different directions.

Main cast

*Katy Haywood – Turkeylegs *Ken Byrnes – Mr. Turnupseed *

Will Oldham Joseph Will Oldham (born January 15, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter and actor. From 1993 to 1997, he performed and recorded in collaboration with dozens of other musicians under variations of Palace (Palace, Palace Brothers, Palace Son ...

– Donald Turnupseed *Sheila Scullin – Sadie *Rich Schreiber – Stool *Kathleen Kennedy – Ethel Firecracker * Cory McAbee – Spank Williams

Accolades

In 2006, Rohal was named one of ''

Filmmaker Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

s 25 New Faces of Independent Film on the strength of ''The Guatemalan Handshake'', his debut feature, which had won Best Film at Slamdance earlier that year. The film won three prizes at the 2006

Torino Film Festival The Torino Film Festival (also called the Turin Film Festival, TFF) is an international film festival held annually in Turin, Italy. Held every November, it is the second largest film festival in Italy, following the Venice Film Festival. It was f ...

, including Best Director for Rohal. It shared the festival's Jury Special Prize with '' Honor of the Knights'' and the 2006 Holden award with ''Honor of the Knights'' and ''Zapiski putevogo obkhodchika''.
torinofilmfest.org 2006 Winner's List *

2006 in film The following is an overview of events in 2006, including the highest-grossing films, award ceremonies and festivals, a list of films released and notable deaths. Pixar celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2006 with the release of its 7th film, ' ...

References

External links

* *
Benten Films
' official DVD webpage 2006 films 2006 comedy-drama films American independent films American comedy-drama films Films scored by David Wingo 2006 independent films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films English-language comedy-drama films English-language independent films {{2000s-US-film-stub