In April 2013 , io9.com asked director Shane Carruth if the film 's point regarded a return to nature . Carruth replied that the film explored breaking cycles : Regarding the role of The Sampler , Carruth told io9 , " So the idea that they would find this pig sampler , or this pig-farmer/sampler character , to be the culprit for all of their problems — when , in reality , we of the audience see that , of the three people continuing this life cycle , the thief is definitely malicious , the orchid harvesters are definitely benign . It ’s the sampler who is interesting , but not necessarily doing anything wrong . He is an observer . You can make a case for whether or not he 's culpable , in being able to benefit from the observation ... " Regarding the peace experienced by Kris at the end of the film , Carruth told io9 , " By that time , we know that she ca n’t have children . So whatever it is that she is peaceful with there in the pig farm is not going to return the affection she might have for it . It is always going to be that broken state of things , regardless of what that moment is like right then . " The film premiered on January 21 , 2013 at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival , followed by a theatrical release in the United States on April 5 , 2013 , self-distributed by Carruth . Carruth explained , " Everything about the choice to do the distribution is about contextualizing " the movie
2013 Sundance Film Festival
2013 Sundance Film Festival
Upstream Color