"Civil Dawn"

2018

One brother is plummeting quickly into despair. The other’s life is emerging from a state of selfish squalor. Their sister tries to direct their courses while struggling to command her own. Theo is the middle child. She is obsessive, anxious and caring. A doting mother and loving wife, her life appears perfect, but she reels with inner turmoil and fear. The youngest, Billy, has just been released from prison with no shortage of optimism and ambition, but as hope of a successful life slips away he wrestles with his past drug addiction. Robert is determined to remain autonomous, content with his meager living conditions. Insulated by his animosity toward humanity, he has a tenderness only for his sister, until an unexpected situation alters his perspective. With a mother who died of an overdose when they were young and an abusive alcoholic father who has long been absent, they each have their own difficulties with adjusting to adult life. After auspicious beginnings in a calm spring, tensions begin to simmer over a hot Southern California summer and unexpected tragedy hits in the fall.

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