“The year is 1989, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with what we’re doing”, so says Lance, Kirsten’s partner-in-crime. Together they comprise a desperate, drug-addled duo in Iowa, Carlos Dengler’s directorial debut. Based on characters from the short story “The Scheme of Things”, by Charles D’Ambrosio, Iowa is a breathless portrayal of two lost addicts contriving a fraudulent scheme, which they hope will finance their impending cross-country road trip. Competitive, testy, and, hopelessly wedded to each other, Kirsten and Lance decide to capitalize on the prevailing late-80s panic of urban decay, and go door to door petitioning donations for ‘BAD’, or ‘Babies Addicted to Drugs’, and pocketing the proceeds instead. But an unforeseen twist on their first visit to a suburban resident, involving Kirsten’s nascent psychic abilities, yields an unexpected boon and, finally, a reckoning with the true terms of their relationship.
Directed by Carlos Dengler (USA)