Cliff (Joseph Arnone) is a suicidal war vet.

Kora (Daniella Alma) is a street artist with a penchant for truth-telling and meaning.

When their paths cross, they change each other's life forever within the short span of a unique yet believably authentic friendship. It's a friendship that leads them down a path they could have never anticipated.

A Peace of Autumn is an intellectually satisfying and emotionally resonant film that tackles the challenge of two quite substantial characters within the span of a short film running just over seventeen minutes in length. Both characters end up being people you want to know, Cliff's despair obvious and real and filled with the kind of rage that intimidates yet compels. It's also easy to understand exactly what draws Kora into the situation, perhaps something within herself as both a human being and an artist - if, indeed, one can actually separate those two anyway.

Joseph Arnone, who stars in the film along with serving as writer and director, creates such a multi-layered character that you're never completely clear where everything is going, while Daniella Alma's Kora oozes compassion and vulnerability. Together, the two create a story that draws you in even when you think, and I stress think, you have everything figured out.

Arnone also lenses the film and he does so with an eye toward the awkward intimacy that exists between these two, a friendship borne out of what is both spoken and unspoken between the two.

A Peace of Autumn has only recently been finished and should have no problem finding a home on the indie and underground film fest circuit where its heartfelt story will companion a program of dramatic shorts quite nicely.

© Written by Richard Propes 
The Independent Critic