Anchorage International Film Festival 2011

„Anyone who doesn’t believe in miracles isn’t a realist“, says Billy Wilder.Miracles happen in their own kinda way!Luke Hallow has been wrongly serving a long-term sentence. He killed a young man, who threatened his pregnant wife Eve with a gun, in self-defense. Nine years later, during a visit in jail, his daughter Noel breaks down unexpectedly. The doctor’s conclusion:„If Noel doesn’t get a donor heart soon, she’ll die.“Luke begins a battle against a socially discriminating and morally reprehensible health care system, which forces him to pay a $100,000 cash advance to get Noel placed on the vital recipient list for donor organs. The fees for the operation and the follow-up treatment add up to $300,000, a sum nowhere near covered by Eve Hallow’s insurance. In her desperation and helplessness as a mother she pressures Luke to do something, no matter what, to save her little girl’s life. In a rage she fires harsh words at him: „You owe this to your daughter“ and „I’ve wasted my best years on you“.On Christmas Eve Luke is released from prison and placed in the custody of parole officer, Jack Gridlock. The same day Jack lost his wife in a car accident, he won a load of money in the lottery. He always carries this tragic lottery ticket around with him. His son Pete has never forgiven him for not saving his mother. Pete has been missing ever since.While Gridlock is instructing Luke, Eve apparently has her own little plans. She has a 1:00 p.m. appointment with the insurance agent Bob Gale to sign a life insurance policy, which would provide Luke with $300,000 in case of her death.Luke is stuck with his back up against the wall. As a caring father he needs to get hold of the money, even if that means risking his freedom.Eve returns in the evening and suddenly tries to talk him out of his scheme of committing a crime, in order to get hold of the $300,000. Luke can’t make any sense out of her strange behavior. Unexpectedly, he receives disturbing news from Noel’s physician, Doctor Peterson:„Your wife might qualify as a possible donor with a fair chance of Noelle’s body accepting her mother’s heart.“Luke begs Dr. Peterson not to tell his wife, because he knows Eve would take her own life.Despite the constraints of his parole and Jack Gridlock breathing down his neck, Luke breaks into a jewelry store.Insurance agent, Bob Gale, leaves a message on Eve’s answering machine. She must have a reason for not showing up to their appointment at 1:00 p.m..With a bag full of stolen diamonds Luke heads for Harvey’s Diner where he shot the young man in self-defense, long ago.Suddenly his wife appears out of nowhere. She tries to convince him to undo his crime, before it’s too late.„If something happened to her and he went back to jail, Noel would end up in an orphanage“.Jack is remorseful and realizes that now only a miracle can save Noelle. Eve disappears and returns to the hospital.Jack Gridlock is on Luke’s tail and catches him as he is about to leave the diner with his bag and booty. Jack shows no pity and wants to detain him for violating his parole restrictions.Suddenly Gridlock’s long-lost son Pete enters the diner. He claims to have promised Luke’s wife to come and bring him the donor bracelet she gave him, when she died in his arms, shortly before twelve. Eve had saved his life by giving her own.Out of gratitude, Gridlock gives Luke the tragic lottery ticket and the money he has stashed away and never touched.„That should be enough for your daughter’s operation.“Jack and Luke realize they are both part of a miracle.