THE HOUSE CALL1987. Rural New York. A young equine vet is called in the middle of the night to make an emergency house call–a champion dressage horse owned by a high ranking Italian mobster is colicking. Over the course of one night and one moonlit field–she works to save the horse, finds unexpected connection with one of the mobster’s sons; witnesses a deadly dispute and confronts the night’s aftermath with ex-Rajneesh followers who are hosting their annual intermediate sitar workshop at the neighboring farm.
Absurd in its action but realist in its concern, the film follows teachings of pre-socratic dialogist and includes a performance within a performance of an iteration of Pina Bausch’s
Die sieben Todsünden.
Written and directed by Eliza Barry Callahana writer, filmmaker, and musician from New York City.
Her debut novel, The Hearing Test, was published in 2024 to critical acclaim, was longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and is a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lion Award. Her writing has appeared in places including
The Paris Review, BOMB, The Drift, and
frieze.
Her directorial debut short film “The Non-Actor “ with Maya Hawke and Victoria Pedretti premiered in Europe at International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in 2025 and will have its North American premiere in September 2025 (TBA) . Callahan co-wrote and creative produced BUST (dir.Angalis Field) which premiered at Sundance 2024.
She teaches in the creative writing program at Columbia University and is a New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Fellow.
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