
At this time, the blues from earlier turn to pure black as the motels shimmer on the road. Neon signs pop between harsh conditions like snow and rain as imprinted images on the windshield. It is worth paying attention that these are not franchise motels. You will, however, need to leave the interstate. There was an elderly man at the reception who gave me the room key himself and made some jokes about “The Unknown Country”. It’s also worth noting that he did not find it odd that a customer rang the bell at midnight. A warm bed and a sign of a familiar face do a lot to make the loneliness of this huge country feel a little lighter. Pink neon light seeps through the window of the cold room.
Imagine photoshopping the real world into words – A process that Morrisa Maltz uses in her remarkable story-telling debut called “The Unknown Country.” This piece not only mesmerizes one but darts them from the white cold wilderness of South Dakota to the steamy nights of Texas while taking them on a poetic journey. The part of the world in question is portrayed by aged actor Lily Gladstone, who takes on the role of Tana, an Indigenous woman looking to relocate to Texas after her grandmother passes away. One question that lingers within a reader’s mind is what the author decided to answer later on in the story – how come the details are needed? Well, one answer is we never truly know which portions of reality were staged to mask the complete tale.
Such is the wonderous enigma that is Tana. During her road trip on the majestic plains of America, Tana struggles between mourning her grandmother and coming to terms with the lack of an extended community. Leaving through a series of motels for her cousin’s wedding alongside meeting her Oglala Lakota family, Tana has indeed jogged deep into the spine of America. And who can be blamed for wandering if it is America with all its grace? Tana being native herself indeed has to be cautious, especially whilst travelling alone and never knowing when danger would strike. On the other hand, Tana being affectionate enables her to grab carefree moments here and there with the most memorable one being in Texas where she ends up overindulging in fun with a group of strangers she met sitting in an outdoor bar. The same sort of wonder lies within “The Unknown Country”. There is beauty in how it changes the perspective from harsh frosty north areas to the warm, inviting south.
It’s a journey of self everlasting Tana, as Tana has felt detached from her family, gaping a disconnection with the entire community as well.
In the business staff, there is the word ‘touchpoints’ which refers to all those places where a customer interacts with the organization. Alternatively, “Touchpoints” can refer to the places where, completely by chance, the stranger, say, the person behind a counter at a kiosk, decides to speak to a let’s say, a regular customer, and do it for absolutely no reason other than just because performing acts of kindness seems to be the norm these days. But now it seems like every aspect of our society is structured in such a way as to minimize the level of “Touchpoints” that we experience. Today, “The Unknown Country” helps us realize what we have lost.
Maltz incorporates her documentary background to build a unique blend of documentary and a feature-length film: the protagonists narrate their own stories while Maltz meets them for a brief interaction beforehand. These include a bubble-bursting waitress (Pam Richter) who is dedicated to crafting sweet memories for the diners (this film is dedicated to her), Dale Toller, a modest convenience store attendant, whose voice adds the last bit of relaxation to the shy Tana who he overhears muttering how desperately he wished to meet a man named Cole … if so, “and hell if that muddle came to pass!” There’s more: A voice-over infers a divorced man who left a flourishing career as an engineer to start a motel business with his wife, a dance hall owner in Texas who bought the place so that everyone could see 90-year-old Flo, a local celebrity, dance every night. Tana is surrounded by such intimate and endearing voices as she drives. There are other voices on the radio too. It begs the question: is there a more pronounced contrast? Indeed: the voices of people striving to make it, and the message broadcasted: division and conflict. And reality post-2016 does not have to be blatantly stated. It exists within the air.
The screenplay and the motion picture were developed by Gladstone and Maltz, along with editor Vanara Taing and Lainey Bearkiller Shangreaux, who also produced the film and features in it. Alongside other members of the cast, Gladstone engages with actors who take on an interpretation of themselves. As Tana makes a quick stop to see her cousin Lainey, she is easily incorporated into the family that she has been distant from. They have not completely disconnected from life on the “rez,” unlike Tana, who grew up in the city, and probably even avoids it. At the wedding of Lainey and Devin, Tana plays with their energetic daughter, Jasmine, whom they affectionately call Jazzy, and who adores dancing. In a voiceover, Lainey narrates the love story she shares with Devin, reminding viewers of how she fell in love and had to sneak out of the window to see him and how their getting pregnant forced them to marry.
As Devin repeats his wedding vows, he sheds a few tears. These are such beautiful moments, Stunningly, and she gets easily absorbed into this family, sitting outside and chatting with her cousin and stubbing cigarettes in the ashtray, catching some cold beers in a local pub. There is an added tenderness in how she is treated. Nevertheless, she is acutely aware of her otherness. Tana gazes upon the young version of her grandmother in a photo taken on a similar road trip in 1940.
What is pivotal is when Lainey and Tana visit Richard Ray Whitman, Lainey’s grandfather, who happens to be Tana’s grandmother’s brother. While taking a walk in the darkening winter evening, he, like many intelligent and seasoned individuals, seems to form an intuitive sense of Tana’s circles of uncertainty, wanting to know and understand her grandmother. As she does so, he gifts her a suitcase full of the women’s possessions. She receives a photograph and a cotton housedress. Because Tana’s quest for understanding goes deeper, these indeed open more questions than they answer.
In Andrew Hajek’s cinematography, the design is full of colors and delicate to all the different types of light: cool, harsh, deep, or soft. While the use of lens flare has become cliche, it is done uniquely here Light doesn’t just shine, it also melts and refracts. The astonishing deep blues, floating neon signs, the mono-chromatic wintery landscape, dark and deep colors of wind-swept twilight in the middle nowhere along with the reflection of MOTEL in the windscreen, give The Unknown Country a new and tactile quality. It’s more than just watching. It’s about the feeling that the movie encapsulates.
Kelly Reichardt’s “Certain Women” casting had pretty much ‘big names’ including Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, and Kristen Stewart. But the one that stood out the most was Lily Gladstone the farmhand who attends night classes. After riding her horse to class and having coffee with her sleep-deprived teacher (Stewart) at a diner, Gladstone gives nearly all of her lines through facial expressions alone (she does this here as well). If Gladstone had lines, she wouldn’t need them; it’s all on her face, or rather, her face telling a sophisticated story full of unexpressed emotions. It’s incredibly romantic, but it’s too bad they buried a woman like that at work. It’s also magnificent to see her here. She doesn’t say much, and her energy differs a lot from “Certain Women”, but the character she’s playing here is shyer and less confident, so her gradual thawing out might take a little too much longer. Still, it is exciting to see Gladstone in the much-awaited “Killers of the Flower Moon” by Martin Scorsese.
Although the ending scene is a rather unsatisfactory culmination of what Gladstone was trying to convey, it is some sort of catharsis. I was rather focusing on her expression as if she was appreciating the world and the voices around her telling us who they were and what they had gone through. Peaking from the side of a family photograph displayed in the Shangreaux house is a little paper piece that contains a phrase by poet Mary Oliver – ‘Tell me, what is it that you plan to do with your one, wild, and precious life?’”
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