Filmmaker Barrett Burgin (The Next Door) is getting ready to present his latest short film, Out of the Ground, at the 17th annual LDS Film Festival this week.

It’s only twenty minutes long, but it packs a punch. The story centers around a man (Clay), his wife (Terra) and their daughter (Light) who live a secluded life in the mountains where they tend to their own little Eden-esque garden. They grow everything they need, but they’re trying to use the ground to grow much more than just fruits and vegetables. Clay begins to obsess just a bit too much over their mysterious project, resulting in a sense of tension that lasts through the finals seconds of the film.

The film features a smorgasbord of genres, but I suppose it could rightly be categorized as a sci-fi mystery drama. Burgin says his inspiration came from Tree of Life (2011) and Interstellar (2014). “I wrote the original draft days after my mission when I was trying to make a deeply personal decision between two good choices,” Burgin said. “The story evolved into one about choosing family over all else, even our greatest dreams or aspirations.”

Check out the trailer here:

It’s an intriguing plot, but what might catch your eye most is the married couple starring in the short (played by Jeff and Aurora Dickamore). Recognize them from anywhere? Take a good long look. And that’s about all I can say about that. Sorry.

As of Wednesday, February 28, Out of the Ground has been nominated as a finalist for the Fiction Award from the Association of Mormon Letters.

Q & A with Out of the Ground director Barrett Burgin

I was lucky enough to learn a little more about Out of the Ground via email correspondence with the film’s director, Barrett Burgin. I’m literally copying and pasting some of the questions he answered for me: