See you at the end of the road!

Nomadland (2020)
Director, Screenplay, Co-producer: Chloè Zhao

Maybe we never forgot our roots. Even though we decided to become farmers, stay put in one place and hope to gain strength through numbers (i.e. living in communities), we simply could not shake off our desires to wander and be close to Nature. As cavemen and hunter-gatherers, we were doing the same thing. We were awed by the things around us. We wanted to experience them and to know all about the fantastic things that we saw and felt. Who built them? When were these made?  Like an excited child, we yearned for answers. And we are still doing them today. 

At one time, we were told it is what it is. Do not ask too many questions of which answers you will not understand. It is beyond your comprehension, they would say. Nah, read these scriptures; everything is there. With science, it appears that this mindset is changing. People started asking questions and more question. Apparently, there were more questions than answers the more people asked. Curiosity piqued. Obviously, the books did not have all the answer. It seems that people need to feel to experience. They needed to spread their wings. The desire to travel is rekindled.

Much like a physical journey, our life journey gives us pockets of experiences. Every visual gratification, every smell, every touch, every feeling is an experience of its own. In life, we would encounter many sweet-bitter events. All these pockets of experiences form a composite picture of what we can say 'our life'.

'Nomadland' can be viewed as a cerebral movie that tries to look at two things that seem essential to the American public - homelessness and the zest to find the meaning of life. In a way, this film combines both topics. 

Chloè Zhao

Many townships that had experienced boomtown for decades are now in real danger of being wiped off the USA map. The industries and factories which formed the rock bed of their existence have suddenly lost their competitiveness. Many of the work had been outsourced to third world countries. Town dwellers had to find employment elsewhere. One such town in this story is Empire in Nevada. Fern, the protagonist, is one of the last people to leave this town after its Gypsum plant shuts down, and her husband dies. She sells her belongings to invest in a van to travel, see the world, and seek employment. 

In the course of her journey, she meets many fellow travellers who consider themselves 'nomads', making trying to escape the restrictive lives that they were leading or to cut loose of the melancholy that suffocate them. 

Perhaps by being out in the open amongst the gargantuan structures and mighty forces of nature, all our troubles seem insignificant. To the vast expanse of the Universe, we, as individuals, are irrelevant in the greater scheme of things. We are nothing, so are what we perceive as our unsolvable miseries.

Chloè Zhao has the enviable reputation of being the first woman of colour and the second woman to win the coveted 'Best Director' award at the Oscars. But, unfortunately, her native country, China, had censored all of her, the 2021 Oscar, as well as her acceptance. This is in response to her caustic remark about China in a 2013 interview. She had described China as a 'place where there are lies everywhere'.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Revenge is the hands of the Gods!

Revenant (2015)


This brutally graphic movie reminds me a lot of 1971’s ‘Deliverance’ where the American wilds were the backdrop. Only, this time, it is the freezing sub-zero outdoors, and survival is not only from the harsh, brutal forces of Nature, but danger lurks from barbaric acts of Man.

Set in the turbulent times of America when nature is raped, wildlife is pushed to the brink to extinction and the serene lifestyle of the Native-Americans is disturbed as the Western frontier is conquered, a group of poachers who trade in pelts is attacked by a band of Natives.

Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), an excellent trekker, is part of the hunting group. He has a half-breed son with a Pawnee woman, who we later discover had died before the beginning of the story.

While fleeing from his attackers, Glass is severely mauled by a bear and is seriously wounded. As he was slowing down the party, in the harsh weather and it seem sure that Glass would die, the Captain appointed (and paid) three of his men to stay back and give him a proper burial when he died. The elder of the men, Fitzgerald, kills Glass’ son and influences the third man to bury Glass alive and return to camp.

What follows next is the story is sheer survival in the wild and the friendship between a white man and a native who comes to his rescue. With his new found vigour, Glass seeks revenge for the murder of his son. Along the way, the viewers would be faced with unbelievable death-defying science-defying scenes. One should not be too bothered to ask how a man, mauled to the brink of death with soil contaminated open wounds and compound fractures survive his ordeal! He springs into health just with pure emotion as his panacea. A convalescing man falls off a cliff with the impact cushioned by the branches of a pine tree but still survives the bone-chilling hypothermia. Did I mention the protagonist floating around in the icy cold river and thrown off a waterfall? It yearns a total rethink of our approach to a polytrauma patient and the need to prevent tetanus and zoonotic diseases.

A recurring theme pops up quite so often as a Native-American prophesies is ‘Revenge is in God’s hand’! That seem to the talking point that interest me the most. In fact, my friend and I were recently involved in a discussion about justice on Earth, whether a man should be subjected to the man-made flawed legal system or leave it to the higher justice when he is confronted with his Maker! Are our policing and penal systems only based on wanting to punish the perpetrator with the concept of ‘eye-for-eye’, ’tit-for-tat’ not to correct? In wanting for a better system, we are stuck this system where a life lost with spur another life to be lost and another to avenge in honour of bloodlines.