Hybrid docu-drama The Unknown Country is a contemplative film. Following the journey of Tana (Gladstone) from South Dakota to Texas, Morrisa Maltz’s tapestry of America is both solemn and comforting, a thoughtful look at what it’s like to live in the depths of Middle America. There’s a verité style to Maltz’s approach – during Tana’s road trip, she encounters strangers who tell their stories to the camera, strangers whom Maltz met in her own real travels. The Unknown Country expands on the little moments of which many people don’t think much. It brings to life people whose kindness would otherwise be unassuming to the average person, like a woman who elevates your diner experience with her personal touches, or a man at a gas station who wants to make you smile with a few jokes before you’re on your way.
After the death of her grandmother, Tana returns to visit the Oglala Lakota reservation for her cousin’s wedding. Her journey only begins there, as her yearning to feel close to the woman who now feels so distant from her takes her all the way to Texas in search of the spot her grandmother stood in a picture that Tana clings dearly to her heart.
Soon to star in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, Gladstone is exceptional: A conduit for the stories around her for the film’s front half, she’s gradually given more agency in the film’s third act. Even when she’s not the center, her genuine love for the people around her radiates in a remarkable way. When she’s watching her cousin get married, Gladstone’s eyes glisten with such warmth, kindness, and love. It’s a quiet kind of performance that glues the film’s verité elements together, an active fly on the wall that makes The Unknown Country completely immersive.
The third act of the film is really where The Unknown Country rises above, when Tana breaks through her observer role and becomes a more active character in feeling and understanding her grief, leading her toward a path of discovery. As she travels away from the comfort of her Oglala Lakota family and into the unknown terrain for Texas, radio stories engulf her with the suffocating anxieties of living in America. As an Indigenous woman, Tana’s feelings toward the country she was born in are understandably complex, weighed down by the opinions of bigoted strangers who believe they have the right to tell her how she should live her life. However, Tana finds hope in community in a pocket of Dallas of all places, and connections that guide her closer to her grandmother than she could have ever imagined.
The Unknown Country is a naturalistic exploration of America that’s hopeful of human connection in the midst of a country that sometimes feels hostile. It’s simplistic, but honest and true to Maltz and Gladstone’s optimism in the face of a place that sometimes bleeds hopelessness.
This article appears in August 4 • 2023.