The Unknown Country

A sweeping cinematic embrace of the skies and horizons of the great American West, The Unknown Country tracks a Native American woman (Lily Gladstone, soon to star opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon) and her odyssey from Minnesota to Texas, on a quest for family and self-discovery after the death of her grandmother. Along the way, she accepts the kindness of rank strangers and the gentle arms of kinfolk close and distant, measuring the miles in hugs, gatherings, family revelations and cigarette butts. Director Morrisa Maltz, who previously made documentaries and short films, conjures a touch of hybrid magic as the film blurs fiction and non-fiction elements (including non-professional cast, an actual wedding, and sweet interludes with some of the actual characters Gladstone’s Tana meets on the way). Fans of Terrence Malick and Paris, Texas won’t miss the film’s affinity for their vibe, but in this loose, sprawling and sometimes anxiously heartfelt excursion, Maltz offers a vital glimpse of an overlooked America.

This screening is preceded by the short film Dugout Dick by Harrod Blank.