A shotgun wedding in the apocalypse, and the groom's mother might be the real monster.
Rachel, her father David, and adopted brother Isaac flee an attack on their home that leaves David disabled, and everyone traumatised. When they arrive at Janice’s farm, they are welcomed in and given asylum. While David convalesces, Janice asks Rachel to marry her youngest son, Caleb. With the offer of marriage looming over her, she learns of hidden tensions within the family, slowly illuminating cracks in the happy facade Janice seems intent on living. Rachel is determined to go North, where rumours tell of a land less blighted than the one they live in.
Acting
Michelle Bradshaw's Janice: terrifying hospitality, smile never reaching dead eyes.
Direction
du Plessis makes the Karoo feel like a character slowly burying everyone alive.
Director
Pieter du Plessis
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot in South Africa's Karoo region, the film repurposes American dust bowl imagery for a uniquely African post-apocalyptic vision rarely seen on screen.
The title 'Dust' refers to both the literal blight and the biblical 'dust you shall return' — Rachel's northern quest mirrors Exodus, but Janice's farm is the Egypt she can't escape.
US
