Sling Blade (1996)
(Billy Bob Thornton, US 1996, 135 min., 35mm)
Set in Arkansas, the film tells the story of a man named Kal Childers (Billy Bob Thornton) who has an intellectual disability and is released from a psychiatric hospital, where he has lived since killing his mother and her lover with a sling blade when he was 12 years old. In the mid-1990s, the state decides that he is no longer dangerous and releases him to his small town where he takes up work fixing engines. He then begins a friendship with 12-year-old Frank Wheatly (Lucas Black) and his mother Linda (Natalie Canerday). Filmed over the course of 24 days, Sling Blade launched Thornton into stardom, earning him a nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role as well as the Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay.