About this episode

Director Joshua Erkman discusses his feature-length debut, A Desert, exploring its themes and characters.

It's a pleasure to welcome director Joshua Erkman onto the podcast, who, after a lifetime toiling away in the industry, has finally released his feature-length debut, A Desert - a film that exists somewhere between Hitchcock's Psycho and the abstract nightmares of David Lynch. When a middle-aged photographer heads to the desert, sans mobile phone, to attempt to recapture a sense of the wildness that informed his prior work. Unlucky for him, he gets what he wanted in the form of the Manson-like Renny and Nymphet Susie-Q, who light the fuse for the chaos that ensues. This was genuinely one of my favourite first time watches of 2025, so i'm pleased i got to sit-down with Joshua, who runs thru the pre-production, the themes, the characters and so much more involved in this desert-noir. And for those who may have not seen this, there is major spoilers from about the mid-way mark, but we try not do touch on every plot element, to keeps things fresh for those of you who haven't. A Desert is currently available on physical, and is also streaming on Shudder.

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