Nomaland's Oscar-Winning Film Review, Laughing At The Irony On American Soil

Nomadland Film (Photo: ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Zhao's Oscar-winning film Nomadland premiered on Disney+ last week. The film will also hit theaters on May 17.

Adapted from Jessica Bruder's memoir "Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century" it tells the story of Fern, a woman in her sixties who has lost everything after the financial crisis hit Empire, a fictional town in Nevada, USA in 2008.

"I'm not a bum, I'm just... No home. It's not the same, is it?" said Fern (Frances McDormand) to one of her acquaintances in the film Nomadland, quoted from ANTARA.

Selarik dialogue is simple, but menohok. Perhaps because of a line of sentences that the film by screenwriter and director Chloe Zhao finally penetrated the Oscars 2021.

A sentence without judgment on the life choices of someone who chooses to hold tightly to memories rather than succumb to heartbreaking freedom.

As a film that aired during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is rather ironic to see the journey of an old woman wandering freely in her van. Nostalgia and longing to be out there are jumbled up while watching Nomadland.

Although seen as a person who lives in distress, in fact in the depiction of Zhao, Fern and people in the nomadic community are people who live the day as usual and even find one or two pleasures in a day.

They share stories, exchange jokes and pay attention to each other when someone is sick or even dies.

Zhao invites viewers to see nomadic views on life, how they adapt through the need to face almost every challenge. There is also a romantic subplot between Fern and Dave (David Strathairn), which gives Fern the opportunity to forget her past.

From the beginning of the film, Zhao has turned the hearts of viewers to build the story so that we hope that Fern finds happiness. Life initially feels bleak for Fern but neither McDormand nor Zhao allows us to feel sorry for Fern's figure.

Fern then gradually begins to move further into the nomadic community, befriending the people she meets on the street. However, the painful past makes Fern reluctant to embrace any future, including establishment and love.

Frances McDormand is no stranger to the Oscars stage. She has been nominated for at least six Oscars, and three times brought the Oscars home for her work as an actress. In 1997, she first won an Oscar for Best Actress for "Fargo". The 63-year-old actress then repeated her 2018 win with the film "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri".

Through Nomadland, McDormand appears very convincing as Fern the nomad, she manages to hide her character as a very complex top actress with a simple Fern attitude. Fern who only knows loves her husband.

Fern goes through many things, forming a hard shell to never be harmed by the world again. Nonetheless, there was no awkwardness or prestige for him. When he sits in camp and works on his favorite van called Vanguard, he can be anyone, and that's the point.

What's interesting in Nomadland is the appearance of two extraordinary figures who are actually real nomads, Charlene Swankie, a kayaker preparing to die and there's Linda May, a retiree who talks powerfully about how she thought about killing herself, before finding the strength to move on.

Nomadland is a funny, sad, and shocking story for those of us who have always considered America to be a land where dreams are possible.

The pictures presented by Zhao in the film are beautiful, the sky is wide and the scenery is unforgettable. The beauty of the landscape fern passes by with her dilapidated van seems to add firmness to her compulsion to keep moving.

Here, Zhao shows us the human losses inflicted by a handful of rich people, and the power necessary to keep going. "What is remembered, will continue to live."