Page - 32 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 06/01

The narrative leaps forward through time and introduces Jeff, who encoun- ters Kris during his train commute and is intrigued by her presence (her shortened hair suggests that extensive time has passed since her traumatic experience). Jeff feels drawn to Kris, and despite her initial hesitation, he patiently pursues a quiet romance with her. Interspersed between scenes of their budding relationship, we see the Sampler recording noises and music from the world around his pig farm, collecting auditory samples from nature. As he walks through the large pigpen and draws close to the animals, he is suddenly transported to various human individuals, silently observing people who appear unaware of the Sampler’s presence (the par- allels to the presence of the angelic or divine are conspicuous). When Jeff and Kris finally kiss and consummate their physical relationship, we sud- denly see them lying on a white sheet in the middle of the Sampler’s pig farm. They be- gin to realize they are somehow linked when they notice their mutual scars from the pig transfusion, and also that they share similar stories of past unexplained traumas and financial ruin. Moreover, their memories seem to be mingled: when they share about childhood experiences, each recalls the same event as their own in a muddled blurring of memory, history, and forgetting. Kris discovers that she is unable to con- ceive a child, her body (unbeknownst to her) having suffered and recovered from endometrial cancer. However, her pig avatar successfully gives birth to piglets, who are rounded up by the Sampler into a burlap sack and drowned in a nearby stream. This horrific event, though occurring at a distance, somehow initiates an existential panic in the human couple: Kris frantically searches as if for something lost, while Jeff spontaneously starts a fistfight with co-workers. This dis-ease prompts Kris and Jeff to Fig. 5: God’s eye view of Kris and Jeff. Film still, Upstream Color (Shane Carruth, US 2013), © ERBP Film, 01:09:35. Parabolic Transcendence in Time and Narrative | 31www.jrfm.eu 2020, 6/1, 17–36