It's been almost two years since I watched that film. Perhaps no other film has haunted and depressed me for such a long time as "Meek's Cutoff". Directed by Kelly Reichardt, a powerful and celebrated director of parallel films/ avant garde films, it was released in 2010. Financially it didn't fair well in box office.

The film is based on a historical event in the mid-1800s, when a guide named Stephen Meek leads a small group of settlers/families through Oregon's high desert. He gets lost, and the wagon train that should have reached the destination valley in two weeks wandering through the desert even after five weeks. Films are visual experiences. What they convey is an inner experience that cannot be expressed in words. Almost everyone in the group knows that they were lost. But the guide doesn't admit or accept it. Along the way, they come across a Native American man. Meek's reaction is to finish him off, meaning, 'You can't trust him.' Immediately, a young lady in the group- Emily points a gun at Meek. She sees in the Indian a possible guide. In the rest of the journey the train follows him. Devoid of any shade, everyone walks all day in the burning heat of the sun. The only time they get a little food and rest is at night. Even the little provisions in the wagons are getting depleted. Meanwhile, one of the wagons overturns on a steep descent and breaks down, which was a great tragedy. The brownish high desert stretches as far as the one can see. With her wild loneliness, turning her face away, the earth lies ready to swallow us up.

Their journey is in search of a valley where there is water and to settle down there. Even though the leadership of the journey which was led by Meek and the men in the group is taken over by a woman and a tribe's person, it wasn't fruitful. The film ends when the food and water provisions they had brought for the journey is run out; after walking for several weeks everyone is exhausted in mind and body; and with no idea what to do next, the journey ends in a state of utter nowhere and despair. The tribe's person seems to climb the mountain aimlessly.

Remember, the film began where the group was crossing a river!

Today, I read from the the 47th chapter of the book of Ezekiel that a little spring gushes out from the foundation of the temple porch that is facing east, growing in depth and breadth until it becomes a great river, providing food and medicine for all living beings on both shores and within. I also read about a man who lay exhausted by the water of a pool for thirty-eight years and whose life had come to a standstill.

I also see many people today who have left behind culture and are traveling to something they think is civilization.

I'm vainly reminded of 'Meek's Cutoff'.