Picnic In the Ruins

A madcap caper across the RV-strewn vacation lands of southern Utah meets a meditation on mythology, authenticity, the ethics of preservation, and one nagging question: "who owns the past?"

Anthropologist Sophia Shepard is researching the impact of tourism on cultural sites in a remote national monument on the Utah-Arizona border when she unexpectedly crosses paths with two small-time criminals. The Ashdown brothers were hired to steal maps from a "collector" of Native American artifacts, but instead of delivering as promised, the brothers are out to strike it rich.

But their ineptitude has alerted the local sheriff to their presence--and forced their employer, a former lobbyist seeking lucrative monument land that may soon be open to energy exploration, to send a fixer to clean up their mess before it upsets her machinations. Sheriff Dalton, following the Ashdowns' trail, soon discovers he's not dealing with a simple burglary--and any hope the sheriff had for peace and quiet is long gone.

O caprita nebuna pe taramurile de vacanta din sudul Utah-ului, presarate de RV, intalneste o meditatie despre mitologie, autenticitate, etica conservarii si o intrebare sacaitoare: ,,cui detine trecutul?" Antropologul Sophia Shepard cerceteaza impactul turismului asupra site-urilor culturale dintr-un monument national indepartat de la granita Utah-Arizona, cand se intalneste in mod neasteptat cu doi criminali minori.