A van, an open highway and very little else: that is the world of Nomadland, the 2020 drama directed by Chloé Zhao. Frances McDormand leads the cast as a woman who takes to the road across the American West after an economic collapse leaves her with nothing to stay for.
What is Nomadland about?
The Great Recession has taken everything from a woman in her sixties. Rather than try to rebuild the life she had, she packs what remains into a van and begins travelling through the Western United States. The vehicle becomes her home, and she becomes a modern-day nomad, moving from place to place instead of settling. Nomadland stays close to her as the landscape changes around her and as she meets other people who live the same way. There is no chase and no villain here.
About the cast
Frances McDormand is the first name in the credits, with David Strathairn listed second. The rest of the credited cast is Linda May, Swankie, Gay DeForest, Patricia Grier, Angela Reyes and Carl R. Hughes. Chloé Zhao is the film's director.
Context & significance
Nomadland carries a single genre label in the catalogue, drama, and it earns that plainness. Where many road stories use the journey as a route to a destination, this one treats travelling itself as the subject. Its background is specific: the Great Recession, the downturn that cost many people their work and their homes, is the event that sets the central character moving. The setting is equally specific, since the film keeps to the Western United States, a region of long distances and wide horizons that suits a story about someone living without a fixed address. At 107 minutes it is unhurried but not long, and it asks for patience more than attention to plot. The film is a United States production.
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