It begins with a burning car parked on a wintery street. The camera peers down from the window of a Brooklyn apartment, capturing vermillion flames through bare tree branches and whirling snow. The footage is eerie and perplexing: one can appreciate how such a sight piqued the artistic and journalistic curiosity of director Peter Bolte. When it is revealed that the burned-out vehicle holds the remains of two teenaged girls, Tanya Evans and Evelyn Hester, the resulting questions mount in both number and urgency. The tale of the girls' lives and deaths are recounted in All Roads Lead, a haunting and formally stunning feature from St. Louis native Bolte and a small, committed group of filmmakers.
Following the girls' trail back to the sagging, rust-flecked town of Colston, Illinois, the film crew discovers an expansive, confounding tale that defies simple narratives. There are the heartsick loved ones left behind, of course, and the townsfolk who proclaim shock that two sweet local girls could be brutally slain on a cold New York City street. However, in the film's wide-ranging interviews with family, friends, employers, police, and local characters, a handful of common, sinister threads begin to emerge. These include the girls' troubled childhoods; their unsettling relationship with a congenial yet shady bar owner; the looming presence of the nearby state prison; and the open secret of local methamphetamine use and production.
In its probative approach and mournful tone, All Roads Lead evokes superlative true-crime features such as Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's Paradise Lost trilogy and Werner Herzog's Into the Abyss. Bolte's film captures the rural Midwest's particular forlornness without losing sight of its own broader storytelling ambitions. As the film's crew is gradually drawn before the camera and a fresh tragedy is revealed, the distinguished achievements of All Roads Lead come into focus. Bolte and his fellow filmmakers have crafted a poignant and engaging work that defies categorization, prompting the viewer to re-evaluate their assumptions about fact and fiction in the medium of cinema.
All Roads Lead screens Sunday, November 24 at 6:30 p.m. at the Tivoli Theater, 6350 Delmar. For more information, contact Cinema St. Louis at 314-298-4150, or visit cinemastlouis.org.
