The Unknown Country (2022)

It’s Monday, you know what that means. That’s right, it’s time for another installment of Mubi Monday! While we went back almost one hundred years last week, this week we have a more recent offering in… The Unknown Country (2022).

Title: The Unknown Country

Director: Morissa Maltz

Released: March 13, 2022 (SXSW Film Festival)

Runtime: 1 hour 25 minutes

Available to stream: Exclusively on Mubi (don’t have Mubi? Here’s a month on me!)

Tana (Lily Gladstone) has recently lost her grandmother. With her grandmother’s passing, Tana now feels lost. Not only was she closest with her grandmother, but she also now feels as though she’s lost her sense of belonging.

Tana receives an invitation to her cousin’s wedding and sets out from Minneapolis on a journey to a Lakota reservation. While technically everyone there is family, Tana hasn’t seen any of them in decades. Sometimes even when you’re surrounded by family you can feel like you’re surrounded by strangers.

After the wedding and a night out with her cousins, Tana decides it is time to continue on. Where to? Well, that’s the exciting part, she doesn’t really know or have a plan. She’s continuing on South and will figure it all out when she gets there.

Her only hope is that her final destination will be capable of helping her feel connected again to her grandmother and her past.

What an interesting little journey this turned out to be.

The cinematography from Andrew Hajek was stunning. We were treated to the vast beauty of the Midwest while also feeling isolated and alone on the road with Tana. The way that Hajek chose to frame Lily Gladstone in certain shots helped to make us understand what Tana was feeling. Whether it was focusing closely on her eyes or mouth or her hand movements in certain situations, we felt uncomfortable right along with her.

Speaking of Lily Gladstone, my goodness. She was absolutely incredibly here. Her ability to convey emotion through the most subtle of movements is on full display. Not only that, but she is able to convey emotion from one end of the spectrum to the other, always knowing exactly how much to bring to each scene. While you might worry that the lack of a narrative here might negatively impact performances, quite the opposite is true.

Through her journey, we kept hearing news stories over the radio as she drove through the country. Each story seemed to highlight the dangers that Tana, as both an Indigenous American and a woman, faces. Each danger adding a layer of fear for the unknown for Tana’s journey further South into Texas.

However, there are a few times where the free flow between documentary and narrative strayed a little too far from Tana and her journey. The more we strayed from Tana, the less interested I was. That’s not to say that the people she encountered along the way weren’t relevant. They most certainly were. Especially in how through each interaction we could see Tana get a glimpse of belonging in each community she found herself in.

While not without its flaws, The Unknown Country (2022) is a brisk and enjoyable watch. If nothing else, it is worth a watch for the Lily Gladstone performance alone.

Well, there you have it. Those are my thoughts on The Unknown Country (2022). But what are yours?

If you’ve seen The Unknown Country (2022), tell me what you thought of it in the comments below or by reaching out to me on social media!

As always, you can see what else I’m currently watching over on my Letterboxd profile.