Love & Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere

An oddball documentary that plays a bit like a “mockumentary” (but isn't), Love & Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere serves up an idiosyncratic blend of essay and investigation into a mystery that may never be solved. The focus is on the disappearance and nightmarish death of mathematics professor Steven Haataja, who had been working at a local college in tiny Chadron, NE (less than 6,000). In 2006, Chadron came very close to being consumed by a wildfire that ravaged a surrounding forest and came very near city limits (an image of the devastation right on Chadron's doorstep looks downright surreal). Haataja, who had not been living in town long, and was not especially outgoing, simply vanished one sub-zero winter's night. His body was found three months later tied to a tree in the ruined woods, charred beyond recognition. Filmmaker Dave Jannetta elicits the opinions of many Chadron residents as to what they believe happened, including conspiracy theories that have been fueled by a combination of opaqueness and incompetence on the part of police investigators. But the film also spends considerable time on author Poe Ballantine, who wrote a book about the Haataja case. Ballantine is a haunted man who seems to have meandered from a completely different life into a stale existence in Chadron, writing and getting married to an unhappy Mexican immigrant with whom he is raising a high-functioning autistic son. Ballantine has much to say about his personal history, but what that has to do with the ostensible subject is somewhat of a mystery. An intriguing but also bizarre and scattershot film, this is a strong optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)