The Last Stop in Yuma County (5 Stars)

This is the seventh film in the Stuttgart White Nights Festival.

Yesterday evening I had a big disappointment. I wanted to see "Dream Scenario", but it was sold out. I'm happy when my cinema is doing good business, but only if I get a seat. This morning I was told that I should have waited. There were a few empty seats, because there are always people who buy tickets but don't turn up. If I'd waited by the door I would have been let in.

Every year there are films that I expect to be great, and there are others that surprise me. I expected "Dream Scenario" to be the best film of the festival, but I'll never know. "The Last Stop in Yuma County" was a surprise. The film started off slowly. A travelling salesman pulls into a gas station in the desert. He's told that the fuel truck hasn't yet arrived, but he can wait in the diner next door. There's a radio broadcast that two bank robbers are on the run. Groan... another predictable story?

The robbers arrive as expected at the gas station, also out of fuel. An elderly married couple arrives. A young pair of lovers arrive, intent on robbing the robbers. The diner becomes a microcosm of paranoia and greed. The film's climax is spectacular, except it isn't the climax. The story continues into a mini-climax. That's the closest I'm going to get to spoilers. It's a low budget masterpiece.