film · in the 1978 terrence malick masterpiece days of heaven, an idyllic yet infernal story unfolds against the fitting backdrop of pre-depression America.

words I · malick's title, drawn from deuteronomy, encapsulates both hope and futility.

painting · a visual inspiration for our title film, christina's world by andrew wyeth is the striking embodiment of pastoral longing.

words II · sam shepard, who played the nucleus role in our film, contemplates anticipation and indecision in his final work of fiction, spy of the first person.

music · i threw it all away by bob dylan · 'Americans feel entitled to happiness, and once they manage to find it, they feel as if they own it. If they are deprived of it, they feel cheated. If they feel it has been taken away from them, they imagine they have been done wrong. This guilt I have felt from everyone I’ve known. It’s a bit like a Dylan song: they have held the world in their hands and let it slip through their fingers." - malick on making days of heaven

photography · these are perhaps the most well-known photographs published by walker evans, documenting pastoral hardships and will to survive in the years following the 1929 stock market crash in rural america.