Fern. Snowfall. Sunset.
And ahead, the road. The infinite straight road, empty, but escorted by nature. The field, the rocks, the trees, the stars and even a hurricane are the traveling companions of Fern (Frances McDormand) in Nomadland. Those companions who "help her find her independence," says the director Chloe Zhao, of Chinese origin, but whose curiosity about the American soul has led her to South Dakota Indian reservations in Songs My Brother Taught Me, first and The Rider, after; and now in a road trip from those Badlands to Nebraska and the Nevada desert. “I have tried to capture the immensity of those roads, even knowing that it is materially impossible to describe them. It is a sensation that can only be discovered first-hand”, says the filmmaker who came to the project invited by Frances McDormand.
The actress had read the book nomadic country, by journalist Jessica Bruder, and was looking for someone to adapt it to the screen with her as the protagonist. McDormand saw The Rider at the Toronto Film Festival and fell in love with Zhao's free and real way of filming. "More than a shoot is an experience", He says Joshua James Richards, its director of photography, friend and collaborator of the director since her first film, a faithful believer in spontaneity and in capturing the moment that sometimes, many times, skips the script.
Chloé Zhao, Joshua James Richards, and Frances McDormand.
The book País nomad and the YouTube videos of Bob Wells, the guru of new (and old) nomads, were the starting material with which a small film crew hit the road for almost six months with a script to write based on the sunsets they meet along the way and the characters they meet. What Linda May or Swankie, Fern's friends and real nomads, women who have been left without a postal address and, with a fair pension, sign up for a life free of temporary jobs (at Amazon or in the fields picking beets). A way of life that hides "tragic realities" says Joshua James Richards. “Because we are talking about a lifestyle, a culture, that is disappearing and will never return.”
A lifestyle always on the move that, in the film itself, compared to that of the American pioneers, those who crossed the country in a much more rudimentary way chasing the gold rush of the day. The spirit of westerns, neither more nor less. But modernized. Zhao and Richards are taking care of give a new life to the western, He is no longer male, he is only twilight and he captures the soul and tradition of a country that engages and has led them both to find a new home.
Frances McDormand and David Strathairn, the only two actors in 'Nomadland'.
FERN AND VANGUARD
As protagonists as Fern in Nomadland, they are the road and the van in which she moves around the country, in which she lives, sleeps, eats, cries, laughs… and she learns to use a big bucket for her needs. The story begins in that van, there she puts everything she can from a life that she leaves behind, after the death of her husband and the disappearance of the town in which they had spent their lives (due to the closure of the mines, a classic North American). Essential material things and also memories of great emotional value, such as the crockery that she knows she will not use, but it was a gift from her father. And, in fact, it was Frances's own crockery.
Fern (McDormand) and her Vanguard.
The actress tried to finish off her old companion, which she baptizes Vanguard, with small personal details of hers because for a few days it was her only home... Later, she has acknowledged, she ended up sleeping in roadside motels. But she lived with the whole team those moments of the end of one day, the beginning of another, the meetings with the nomads, thousands of them, in the desert. That feeling of community against the light, accompanied by those rocks that they find along the way and take as souvenirs that prevent them from falling into deep loneliness. All those moments that were, surprisingly, scripted ("More than you'd think," Richards admits) and also haunted them on their journey.
The road for them.
“In the film we embrace natural light, those sunsets are part of Fern's emotional journey and convey comfort and warmth,” continues Richards. that twilight “Says something about the decline of the United States”, she continues. "And at the same time, in that sunset there is a ray of promise. Yes, your life is disappearing, but who knows who you may be in this new day. That's why there is never a final goodbye, only a: "See you down the road." And, ahead, the road.
*The release date has changed from February to April 2.
See you down the road!