At TIFF 2017, I was introduced to the talents of Chloé Zhao. Immediately, I was knocked out by the tenderness of her storytelling and the way she was able to apply it to some of the most weathered corners of America. I quickly sought-out her previous work and kept her in-mind as a talent to watch out for.

Three years later, Zhao has returned to the scene with NOMADLAND – and picked-up right where she left off.

NOMADLAND starns Frances McDormand as Fern; a supertramp who works where she can and goes where she chooses. She comes from a town where the major industry closed-up several years ago, crippling the community so badly that the zip code was soon retired. She now lives in her trusty van (named “Vanguard”) and follows the road wherever it takes her. Fern finds kinship with other nomads, always quick to help where she can, and share a story or two.

American life in 2020 is hard as hell – but maybe it could be simpler.

NOMADLAND is a tender and stunning story about modern life in North America. It aims to capture some of the underappreciated beauty of the space on the map between the cities. We look out across endless canyons and massive skies and feel how small we are in the face of the planet we are abusing.

McDormand takes us by the hand and gently ushers us through this year in life. She moves from space to space with calm confidence, reminding us of people we know in our lives. Her eyes twinkle with contentment, and her body language invites us to sit down and tell her our story. Nothing about what she does suggests that she is eschewing privilege to live this nomadic life, she simply wants to make do with less.

Time and again, Zhao’s film leads us through a tactile world. We can feel the weight of every item, we can hear the ground crunch under our steps. In a time where films are building worlds that are increasingly virtual, Zhao is fixated on the physical. (Note: This is actually amusing since Zhao’s next project is a franchise film set in space – quite a virtual project).

At a time where so many of us are locked in our homes, Chloé Zhao wants to show us what we’re missing. NOMADLAND is a poem for a simpler life and an elegy for an underappreciated world. It’s hot coffee and an autumn sunset as an answer for deep anxieties and constant restlessness. It hears our calls to go on great adventures or consume mass quantities, and in response offers us Frances McDormand reciting Shakespeare.

NOMADLAND wants us to remember what’s most important in life, and what this world has to offer us. We stand to lose more and more what’s truly important and who we care about most with every difficult day. But we have it in us to remember..and as NOMADLAND reminds us, “What’s remembered, lives”