The Unknown Country, scored by Alexis Marsh and Samuel Jones, lauded much praise after its premiere this weekend at SXSW.
Carlos Aguilar from IndieWire magazine described the film, directed by Morrisa Maltz, as a “stunning spiritual companion to Terrence Malick and ‘Nomadland’, that is grounded “on the personal victories” of “extraordinary people in ordinary places”. He goes on to state that Maltz effectively “forges eclectic narrative devices for a tone poem with substantial dramatic meat on its bones” that “masterfully gives us the sensation of something spontaneously beautiful but with a precise cadence that in turn congeals emotionally with the soundscape.”
Lily Gladstone (Certain Women) stars as Tana, who’s lost her dear grandmother and is traveling to a wedding in her estranged Oglala Lakota community. Driving from the Midwest toward the Texas-Mexico border, Tana meets a variety of people who share their stories and invite her into their lives for a short while.
In an interview with BMI, Alexis and Sam stated that “We’ve been working with Morrisa since almost the beginning of our careers. We recognized from those first projects that she had the kind of artistic vision we wanted to be a part of, and saw an opportunity for a long-term collaboration that we’ve been very fortunate to maintain for almost a decade.”