Electrick Children

A group of freaky punks are astonished when a strange girl approaches them as they stagger out of the club. But before long they succumb to Rachel’s innocent charm and decide to take her into the fold. It’s 1996 and Rachel has just turned fifteen. Wearing a simple cotton robe that wouldn’t have looked out of place two hundred years ago, her appearance is somewhat unusual for Las Vegas, to say the least. Rachel believes in God, in her own special way, and finds Him not just in prayers and commandments, but in everything that appeals to her – including the bright lights of Las Vegas and rock music. From an archaic Mormon community, she has rushed headlong into the city to escape being forced into marriage by her father. Pregnant, she’s convinced that a forbidden rock song she listened to secretly in the cellar is the cause. She has come to Las Vegas to track down a mysterious red Mustang and the musician who sang Hanging on the Telephone on the tape. As she moves angelically about this brave new world, Rachel stumbles across a surprising secret. Young director Rebecca Thomas has managed to pull off an astonishing film on a small budget. –Berlinale