Movie Monthly: The Dry Land
America Ferrera is a long way from the territory of hit comedy television series Ugly Betty in this latest cinematic venture. The Dry Land, which Ferrara was producer on and stars in, dramatises the impact of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, as a working class soldier, James, returns to his family after serving in Iraq. The setting is ordinary, working class, small town Texas. The dialogue could almost have been cut and paste from similar films, such is its ordinariness. James lives in a trailer, finds work in his father-in-law’s slaughterhouse, and has a sick mother. We learn his father was a Vietnam vet who drank himself to death. Life’s bleak. Ferrera the loyal, loving wife and his close buddy Michael (Jason Ritter), offer a touch of relief, but the silently-suffering James only pushes them away, accelerating the psychological, downward spiral.
While director Ryan Piers Williams debut feature (out on limited release on 30th) is in danger of plodding too heavily down an angst-ridden route, its illustration of how the reverberations of wartime violence can strain a man to breaking point does have an authentic and earnest air to it that other directors might have subjugated to thrills. Iraq is in the background, but not re-visited, not even through flashbacks. James has forgotten everything, and in the second part of the film it becomes a quest to piece together his troubled past.
I recently heard the director talking about The Dry Land at the Edinburgh Film Festival. Asked if the film was an anti-war film, Williams was emphatic – repeating several times - that this is “not a political film”. I’d have thought the stark realities of PTSS, as depicted here, would be crushing for military recruitment drives and general morale for troops preparing to go back into the field. But it seems the US military takes an enlightened attitude to PTSS (James, after a violent episode, in fact seeks support from a military doctor). Ferrara and Williams, just back from visiting troops in Iraq, said they had received very positive responses from members of the forces who had seen the film and that it had offered PTSS sufferers a way of opening up and talking about the trauma they’ve experienced.
On a related note, there’s Countdown to Zero (due out 23 July), a documentary that looks at the current dangers we face from nuclear weapons. I haven’t seen the documentary, but I’m expecting good things from it - it comes from Participant Media (http://www.participantmedia.com), a company who specialise in thought-provoking, powerful docs such as An Inconvenient Truth, Food Inc., and The Cove.
Meanwhile, the Vancouver International Film Centre is holding its 3rd Brazilian Film Festival between 15 and 18 July. Among the films showing is Tamboro, which, according to the news release, explores major socio-environmental issues of Brazil: the deforestation of the Amazon Forrest, the conflicts over land property in the countryside, growing shantytowns, and increasing criminality in the great urban centers.
Talking Heads frontman David Byrne crops up in the documentary Beyond Ipanema - Brazilian Waves In Global Music – along with M.I.A., Tom Zé, Seu Jorge, Thievery Corporation, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and others as the film explores the Brazilian music experience outside of the country.
Meanwhile, documentary Within The River, Amongst the Trees follows an expedition to the Alto Solimões region where video, circus, and photography workshops were taught to the riverside communities of the local Indian reservations. From the heart of the Amazon to the world, we come to learn how these people live in the most remote areas of Brazil.