‘Nomadland’ - A story foretelling a new, overlooked, and itinerant generation
After a disruptive year for cinema, director, Chloé Zhao’s ‘Nomadland’ is a quiet neo-western drama that has become 2021’s Oscar frontrunner.
It’s the tale of a “house-less” (as opposed to homeless) babyboomer, Fern, who is gracefully played by Frances McDormand. Having lost her full-time job, husband, and entire town in the years following the 2008 financial crash, Fern lives in her van endlessly traversing the vast expanse of the American West. On her eventful journeys, she meets “nomads” like herself, making friends and finding fleeting moments of a close-knit community.
The cinematography of magnificent landscapes, paired with Ludovico Einaudi’s piano soundtrack, is skilfully contrasted with Fern’s little van and its bucket toilet. Set against the backdrop of America’s varied and beautiful landscape, the viewers share the experiences of reticent nomadic loners making profound human connections. For a brief moment, Fern is seen looking out of her van at a lone bison. For me, this represents the nomads; they, like the dignified bison, are noble beings deserving our respect. These modern-day nomads are portrayed as a self-reliant tribe, that funds their way through ignored but essential jobs – whether that be in a gigantic Amazon warehouse, to farming sugar beets, or cleaning restrooms. Like the bison, which is still a herd animal, Fern sometimes needs to rely on others. This is exquisitely shown when Fern is forced by circumstances to disturb a grumpy fellow nomad. These two nomads eventually find solace together and connect with each other.
One of the settings, Badlands National Park, is a barren but beautiful place. This was like the economy at the time, truly difficult to live in, with many hard-working people reduced to poverty through no fault of their own. Nonetheless, hopes, dreams, joys and laughter endured. In this aspect, ‘Nomadland’ foreshadows a new and different older generation, whom Fern’s brother-in-law says, “chuck everything and hit the road”, hoping to find some semblance of the happy life.
We in the UK and other places can relate to that in this period of economic difficulties. Whilst our “house-less” may not take the same form as those in ‘Nomadland’, the film still makes us empathise with and realise that there’s a forgotten and neglected part of a society. ‘Nomadland’ is unique in portraying these issues in a bleak, striking, and outstandingly acted Hollywood western.