''Rain'' is a 2008 Bahamian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by Maria Govan. This was among the first feature productions to be shot entirely by citizens of the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

. ''Rain'' marks the final film of actor

Calvin Lockhart Calvin Lockhart (born Bert McClossy Cooper; October 18, 1934March 29, 2007) was a Bahamian–American stage and film actor. Lockhart was perhaps best known for his roles as Reverend Deke O'Malley in the 1970 film ''Cotton Comes to Harlem'' and ...

Plot

A young Bahamian girl, Rain, boards a local mail boat from Ragged Island and sets sail for Nassau. The death of her grandmother has forced her to get out and explore the world on her own. When she arrives in

Nassau Nassau may refer to: Places Bahamas *Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence Canada *Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792 *Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...

, the sights of the big city overwhelm her, and soon she finds her idealistic illusions shattered when she finds how destructive her mother's lifestyle has truly become. Stranded in an unfamiliar environment that fills her with dread and confronted by a mother she has never known, Rain searches desperately to find her own place in the world.

Production

''Rain'' was the first film to be directed by Maria Gowan, who raised the US$1 million budget through Bahamian investors. It was also one of the first features to be produced entirely in the Bahamas (the first being "Filthy Rich Gangster"), which had long been a filming location for the ''

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

'' films among other efforts. Govan's film was shot during four weeks on three different islands of the Bahamas, including

New Providence New Providence is the most populous island in the Bahamas, containing more than 70% of the total population. It is the location of the national capital city of Nassau, whose boundaries are coincident with the island; it had a population of 246 ...

and Eleuthera; filming also took place in New York City.

Release

In early September 2008, ''Rain'' received its world premiere at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

. On December 4, 2008, it became the opening selection of the 2008 Bahamas International Film Festival. ''Rain'' was released on DVD in the U.S. on July 27, 2010.

Reception

When the film was shown at the Toronto Film Festival, Alissa Simon of '' Variety'' said: "Displaying an eye for composition, helmer Govan (who spent two years observing a crack house for docu ''Where I’m From: HIV and AIDS in the Bahamas''), knows her milieu — essentially the antithesis of Bahamian tourist-board images. Martina Radwan’s gritty lensing and Denise Hudson’s detailed production design provide ample support." She, however, commented on "the script's melodramatic cliches and some weak supporting erformances.

References

External links