The holidays are subject to perception. Christmas can be the most pleasant time of year for some—while to others it can be a reminder of how little joy they have in their lives.

With her favorite time of year close, the sudden and tragic murder of her husband irrevocably alters Suzanne’s (Anna Margaret Hollyman) Christmas landscape. Soon after, she learns her late husband was seeing another woman: a stripper named Fantasia (Laura Lemar-Goldsborough).

To contend with her grief and find a semblance of hope in her life, Suzanne forms an odd relationship with Fantasia. Tempted by the vapidity of Fantasia’s social scene, Suzanne is drawn willingly towards a seedier side of the holidays and the perversions of a Christmas in suburbia.

An official entry in the 2013 SXSW festival, White Reindeer places the holidays within the context of personal turbulence, always surrounded by the blinding neon lights that obnoxiously remind us: it’s Christmas time.

SCREENING WITH: Portrait as a Random Act of Violence.