In the Russian rental, "Earth of Nomads" Chloe Zhao. On April 25, 2021, in Los Angeles at the Oscar award ceremony, she will certainly be called the best film, and its director is the best director. So far, nominations have not yet been announced (this will happen on March 15), but the result is obvious. It seems from the time of "Titanic" and the Third "Lord of the Rings" it was impossible to confidently predict the victory of a particular film.
Moreover, this is not "Titanic" and not "Lord" - rather full of their opposite. Road Movie with a modest budget of $ 5 million. Heroine - an elderly lonely woman - the name of Fern. She lived with her husband in the engable Nevada town with a magnificent name Empire. The city-forming enterprise was a gypsum plant, and when he closed, a deaf empire literally disappeared from the US card. And soon the husband Fern died. Sold out the property and loss of tears, she sat down behind the wheel of the car and went where the eyes look. I found a job in the Amazon warehouse, the parcel was packaged, then I got acquainted with the other such nomads living in the vans, trailers, minivans - in general, on wheels. I found out that there are a lot of them on the roads of America, they meet, exchange experiences, poured the souls to each other, and then there will be different. Just like Fern, they can say to themselves: "We are not homeless (atom), we just do not have a house (Houseless)."
During the film from Fern, nothing will happen that the viewer could be called truly exciting. But - yes, this is the main American film 2020 Laureate of the Golden Lion of the Venetian Film Festival, two "golden globes" (for the best dramatic film and director), as well as countless awards of film critical communities from American cities - from Chicago to Dallas, from New -Hork to Houston. And explain this success is very easy: keywords in the previous paragraph - "2020 year". That year when America covered Kirdyk, long-predicted by Danil Baghrov. In the country from Coronavirus hundreds of thousands of people died; it beat in fever from public movements and ugly political scandals; Not only gypsum plants began to collapse, but also, for example, the most powerful film industry on the planet. This, of course, is not exactly what Danil thought about, but this is more than enough to completely poison the whole nation mood, make her citizens feel confused. And the picture of Chloe Zhao, starring in 2018, when it was still relatively good, came to today's mood of the audience absolutely sniper. Such miracles happen.
Of course, the "land of nomads" tells a little about another crisis - the fact that began in 2008 and which in the United States since then is called the "great recession". At the heart of the film - the Jessica Bruner journalistic book the same name, which received a subtitle "Survival in America in the twenty-first century." Bruner as followed by five states along with the elderly, disastrous men and women who, according to her expression, are moving, like blood cells on the veins of the country. " "They collect raspberries in Vermont, apples in New York and blueberries in Kentucky" - or make sugar from beet. Yes, they do not break any work at all: some, very older, walk around 20 kilometers a day along concrete floors of warehouses and factories. For Hollywood, this world was the terra incognita. Francis McDormand, reading the book, acquired the rights to her immediately (it became not only the executor of the leading role, but also producer - and personally chose Zhao as the director).
How to call them - 55-year-old, 65-year-old, 80-year-old people who work hard for pennies and are forced to constantly look for places where you can take a free shower? Old people who have behind the memories of a happy life, and ahead - well, rudely speaking, death? Lougers? Well, yes, from the point of view of a rich cynic, they are completely on the side of life. However, the fact of the matter is that the "land of nomads" is not depressive, but a lyrical, melancholic cinema, a two-hour cinematic equivalent of the poem. (In general, it is somehow easier to compare it with the literature than with the films - to the mind, of course, the first thing comes Jack Keroac, but you can remember Stainbekov "Breaks of Wrath", and even sorry, romantic poets with their sea fog blue .)
Fern is a fictional heroine, but with the Great Actress McDormand in the frame interacts real nomads, playing themselves (although Zhao allows themselves to significantly change their biographies). The eyes and intonation of these unprofessional artists produce a very strong impression. Like the deserted American landscapes, which in this picture is indecent much: the characters are infinitely roaming in the steppes, shut down from the legs to the foot by the fire, go down to the sea, look at the hills and sunsets. Starting a film with very sad landscapes, Zhao, together with the viewer, gradually finds beauty in them. Her heroes beaten by life continue to live and wander - overcome adversity with some very American strength, with non-optimistic optimism. Moreover, some, as it turns out, no longer think of existence without a road: for the heroine McDormand, life in the way in the end becomes a conscious choice. As they talked about a completely different person in a completely different film: "He is a poet, he lives on white light." Oh, no, Fern does not know how to write poems - but, without giving himself a report itself, turns his own life into the poem. Not the most comfortable choice - but not the worst.
P. S. The success of Chloly's film Zhao seemed to be the editorial board of Vtimes a good reason to remind Chinese directors who over the past thirty years have impressed the Western public or even had a noticeable effect on Western cinema. About the main of them read here.