Keswick Film Club - Nomadland

Synopsis

Probably the most talked about film in the last 2 years, we had to show it in Keswick. Chloé Zhao has become the first woman of colour to win the Oscar for Best Director whilst the film has garnered Best Picture plus 232 other awards around the world. Along the way Frances McDormand also won the Oscar for Best Leading Actress.

The film tells the story of the many 'new nomads' who lost everything in the last recession and took to the road: "as for anyone, survival isn't enough … we require hope. And there is hope on the road" – Mark Kermode Observer. Frances McDormand plays Fern, one of these new nomads: "At first, life on the road seems perilous and bleak, with inclement weather and cold economic realities giving Fern the chills. Yet she gradually discovers the warmth of America's travelling community, helped by inspirational figures such as the charismatic Bob (Bob Wells), at whose communal desert rendezvous new life skills are passed around by those who are not 'homeless' but simply 'houseless'".

Zhao uses real nomads to play many of the characters in the film, mixing their nonprofessional authenticity with the likes of Frances McDormand and David Strathairn to give the film a documentary feel a technique she used in her other two films with great success.