Mudbound(2017)
dir. Dee Rees
Two families, one farm, no one safe.
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Mississippi, after World War II. Two families, one Black and one white, share land and a hard rural life. Two sons come home from the war, one from each, and become friends in a place that cannot allow it. Rees adapted Hillary Jordan's novel and tells it from six voices, so the inequality of the land and the war gets said plainly, by everyone in turn.
Why it’s here
It's a film about what the war gave and what the South took back. What's punk is how it refuses a rescuer: every character gets their say, and the ending lands anyway. What's pedagogical is the six-voice structure, which makes you notice who is allowed to narrate. Pairs with Beloved, Invisible Man and The Warmth of Other Suns. Note: R-rated; racist violence and a lynching threat, and a sexual assault scene; older teens and adults. English.
Where This Film Lives
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