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:: WHAT THE PEOPLE SAY ::

"A revelation...The Guatemalan Handshake holds a place in my heart that is normally reserved for Easter candy"
-- Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre)


--CURATOR’S CHOICE: The Guatemalan Handshake--

"Watching Todd Rohal’s The Guatemalan Handshake is sort of like dreaming; you think you know what you’re looking at one moment, and
then, in the next, you realize you were wrong. This rule—if the film can be said to have any rules—applies to both the story and in Rohal’s
approach to storytelling.

More a collection of character sketches than any kind of sustained narrative, The Guatemalan Handshake begins with a mysterious power
outage in a Pennsylvania town near Three Mile Island and the subsequent disappearance of Donald Turnupseed (played by musician and Old
Joy star Will Oldham). The rest of the film explores how Donald’s vanishing affects (or doesn’t affect) the lives of the town’s other
memorably eccentric characters. They include Ethel Firecracker, a lonely senior citizen, who, while looking for her lost dog wanders into her
own memorial service; Sadie, Donald’s girlfriend who dreams of defeating her Guatemalan father in a demolition derby; Stool, an overly-
romantic and anxious roller rink referee with hygiene problems; and Donald’s best friend, a wise little girl named Turkeylegs.

The reason why the film is so unpredictable is that Rohal, like the late Robert Altman, is not so much interested in plot as he is in the behavior
of his characters. Rohal’s just genuinely fascinated with Donald and his friends and all the weird things they do. At various times, the movie
might remind you of Days of Heaven, George Washington, Gummo, or Napoleon Dynamite, but ultimately, Rohal has created something all
his own. It’s frequently lyrical and poetic and the 35mm widescreen cinematography of Richie Sherman makes the most of the Southeastern
Pennsylvania locations. Just as often as the film evokes a sort of mysterious awe, it also can be knee-slappingly silly and downright bizarre.

It’s a real dream of a film."
-- Jim Healy, Motion Picture Department, George Eastman House


"No, really: Mad love for any movie that doesnt bat an eye at the idea of a disarmingly pretty, pregnant young woman with one broken arm getting behind the wheel at a demolition derby. Helmed by the restless cinematic mind behind previous MFF shorts favorites such as Hillbilly Robot and Knuckleface Jones, The Guatemalan Handshake is director Todd Rohals feature debut, and it bristles with his anarchic visual language, offbeat humor, ephemeral sense of narrative, circuitous character sketches, and freewheeling sense of mirth. Its also infused with an elusive but profound sense of sadness, as if something truly horrible lurks just outside of each frame or shortly in the future for each character. Set in a small Pennsylvania town near the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, Handshake follows its characters various searches for something. The towns slightly different local boy Donald (Will Oldham) chases after a dog and then mysteriously wanders off. His best friend, a 10-year-old girl named Turkeylegs (Katy Haywood), meanderingly looks for Donald following his disappearance. Donalds kinda/sorta girlfriend, Sadie (Sheila Scullin)the broken-armed, pregnant womanlooks for something, anything, and thinks she might find it in the annual demolition derby that her Guatemalan father usually wins. Donalds father (Ken Byrnes) looks for his electric car that Donald was last seen driving. And the skating-rink employee Stool (Rich Schreiber) looks for anybody he can call a friend or, better, girlfriend. Rohal illustrates this whimsical tale in visually vibrant vignettes, lending the movie a feel of inspired, interlocking short stories."
--Bret McCabe, Baltimore City Paper


" The hitchhiker’s guide to the American hinterland. The wisdom of the world in the tales of a ten-year old girl. God as an orange electro-car.
Todd Rohal’s take on life’s great secrets isn’t afraid of anything. In his funny provincial roundabout Kubrick’s "A Space Odyssey" and "The
Simpsons" are bundled together and given a good mix. Rohal has his characters moving through time like neutrons in a particle-cannon,
sideways, backwards, forwards, slow and quick. Their paths cross in time and even death can come before life in this scenario of arriving and
leaving. The audience follows these travels smiling, laughing, as a near catastrophe in a local nuclear plant leads to a giant blackout and the
disappearance of Donald. Filled with amazement we witness how no one really seems to care about this and so we are drawn into the
enchanting, philosophical story about Donald’s pregnant girlfriend Sadie, his car-loving dad and his best friend, the ten-year old Turkeylegs."
--Torsten Neumann, FilmFest Oldenburg


“A film filled with surprises and rewards, Rohal mines a deep well to unlock a trove of ideas. Unforgettable images
make clear that the point of the journey here, is the journey itself.”
-- Gabe Wardell, Festival Products


“A wonderfully exhilarating and strikingly original work.”
-- Mike Tully, Indiewire


"Invention and personality to spare...not to mention marvelous mysteries, quirky connections and cockeyed running gags that Rohal
effortlessly weaves into the design of the crazy-quilt comedy"
-- Sean Axmaker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer


“Todd Rohal's wonderful debut feature, The Guatemalan Handshake, is more inventive in its first ten minutes
than the entire duration of many films at the elder [Sundance] festival.”
-- Jonathan Marlow, GreenCine


“This Slamdance charmer looks like a throwback to the days before Sex, Lies and Videotape ushered in an era where
feature films would become Hollywood calling cards. I enjoyed the ride.”
-- Andy Spletzer, The Stranger (Seattle Weekly)


"One of the coolest and most original indies of the last year."
--Scott Macaulay, Filmmaker Magazine


"The Guatemalan Handshake captures the feel of a good childhood summer, full of summer camps, carnivals, lightning bugs, rope-swing swimming, fireworks, roller-skating, and demolition derbies. At first glance, the plot is not entirely obvious, but on further examination, all of the pieces to the puzzle are there but just need to be put together. It puts the audience in a warm comfortable place where everything might not be right, but there is a sense of joy, humor and adventure in working towards making things better. It is a film full of awkwardness and blissful confusion that is likely to draw comparisons to not-so-similar films like Welcome to the Dollhouse and Napoleon Dynamite, and is the sort of feature-debut that suggests another seat might soon be needed at the table with the likes of Malick, Solondz, and Lynch."
--Skizz Cyzyk, Maryland Film Festival Guide


"If Napoleon Dynamite taught you that your friends are all gullible saps, this comedy of disconnect offers a good counterpoint. Director Todd Rohal spikes the quirkiness of his Technicolor dork saga with genuine Gummo-style weirdness, and justifies the randomness with well-executed, deeply felt ideas."
--Chris Braiotta, Boston Weekly Dig

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:: RESOURCES & ARTICLES ::

WYPR RADIO INTERVIEW WITH TODD ROHAL - A really great interview from Baltimore's NPR station.

GREENCINE INTERVIEW - April 19, 2006 - Extremely in-depth interview conducted just before the world premiere of GH in Park City.

GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE ON MYSPACE - a place to make friends.

WIREIMAGE AT SUNDANCE / SLAMDANCE - Press Photos from Park City, UT.

OHIO TODAY ARTICLE - Article from Ohio University Magazine leading up to screening in Athens, OH.

NEED TO VENT - A review and some insight from producer Bob Nowotny.

BALTIMORE METROMIX INTERVIEW - Interview from a Baltimore radio/web/print journal.

NEW YORK OBSERVER ARTICLE - Edward McPherson's account of how Director Todd Rohal almost ruined his life.

FILMMAKER MAGAZINE - IN FOCUS - WINTER 2005 - A preview of the film while it was in post-production

PITCHFORK MEDIA - An early mention of GH

PHOTOS FROM THE ROAD - Pictures from the travels and screenings brought about by THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE

PRODUCTION PHOTOS FROM THE SET (and a few from beforehand) - New and insightful!

THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE CAST/CREW INTERVIEWS - An ever-growing archive of knowledge.

A STORY FROM OHIO - All about us.

GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE F.A.Q. PAGE - Useless information.

GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE SET JOURNAL - A diary kept by the cast and crew during the film's production. Chock full of goodness!

PRESS PHOTOS OF THE HI-RES VARIETY - Can be downloaded here.