The Chicago Underground Film Festival is proud to present the World Premiere of ORCHARD VALE, the first feature film from writer/director/musician Tim Kinsella. Orchard Vale is a dystopian family drama, set in a failed state in an unspecified near future.

The film tells the story about five people in the near future living together in the ruins of the contemporary American suburban landscape. The infrastructures of modern convenience have collapsed and the culture has descended into anarchy. Small groups band together to survive.

Cyan Walker stars as Sophie, a 15-year-old girl who supports her father Gus and her brother Archie along with Archie’s best friend Harry and his sister Sabine. Only the quiet and unassuming Sophie is capable of venturing out into the world to barter with roving tribes for food and goods. Ambiguous militias and black market entrepreneurs threaten the others too much for them to leave their small apartment. The days pass with slow dread interrupted only by occasional outbursts of giddiness or pouncing on each other without warning.

Besides providing material support, Sophie also keeps the bunch afloat emotionally and psychologically. Her days are devoted entirely to service for the others. She keeps her only joys, her gerbil and her journal, entirely to herself.

The pressures of maintaining the well-being and health of her family are too much for Sophie. As exhaustion overtakes her, she realizes her hope is all she ever had to offer. Once the cracks begin to appear in that shield, how will she survive, let alone help the others?

“Orchard Vale raises more questions than it can possibly answer. Much of the story is told in between the moments other movies would have probably shown to tell the same story. This is done to invite the viewer to become an active participant, hopefully prompting the audience to expand upon the questions it raises. In a way, it might be like Planet of the Apes without the apes and in a different way like a zombie movie without the zombies.” – Tim Kinsella