The father of a family receives a visit from a man he doesn't know, who claims that there is hidden treasure on his property. The stranger is a liar, as it soon turns out, but the dream of a hidden fortune right under his own feet is stronger than anything the world has to offer in the way of facts. And so he continues his search, plows up the property, begins to dismantle the house, destroys the family ...
Vegas - Based on a True Story was born out of the Nevada desert, the proximity to the casinos, the fat feeling of all-encompassing failure, especially on the outskirts of the city. Where losers and the lost dwell and the wilderness gnaws at civilization, only there can a story be told about why people believe they can turn a lie into truth armed with nothing more than their will. More than any other film by Naderi, Vegas - Based on a True Story is an ode to dust, in this case the sand that swirls around things like people, gnaws at them, manages to settle in the cracks and pores. We know that the sand will still be moving through the world when it has long ceased to concern us. And all the striving and struggling of people in the face of the desert dust is vain and perhaps that is why it is so gruelingly beautiful.
