Nomadland -- A Plot Pure As Star Dust

Nomadsland is a beautiful and compelling story of a woman, Fern, played by Frances McDormant, who belongs to a new society of nomads, living out of her van on the fringes of American society. In this story, Fern portrays one woman’s resolute battle for her own independence against the inhuman forces of American consumerism.

As the story unfolds, we learn why and how Fern came to her present state in life. At first we are tempted to think she is forced into this way of life — and in many ways she is.

When a dry wall factory, which provides the lively hood for nearly all the residents of her community, decides to shut down, her village turns into a modern day ghost town. Around the same time that her community’s zip code is wiped off the map, her husband dies. After the death of her husband and the closing of the factory, Fern is left without a job. She doggedly tries to find new work but this is during the great recession. No one is hiring actual jobs. This is the dawn of the gig economy where steady reasonable paying jobs with benefits becomes a fossil — precious and rare.

What also impresses me about the film is how I question who the antagonist is. The antagonist is not a person. The antagonist is non anthropomorphic. The antagonist here is Amazon and what Amazon represents: happy consumers getting dopamine rushes on every purchase, on every click of a button. As these American’s click away at what they want for Christmas, a peculiar type of social erosion commences — the destruction of good jobs for working people and the effacing of the middle class.

It is tempting to believe that because of the circumstances of her life, Fern is playing the role of a victim. Her living situation appears dire, lonely and tenuous at best. However, over time we learn that this life of living out of a van, defecating into a bucket and finding running water becomes more of an active choice and less of an undesirable constraint which is forced upon her. As loved ones continue to reach out to her through out the movie offering a place to stay, she stubbornly refuses their charity. As viewers of this movie, we ask ourselves, why is she doing this to herself?

While it is true that her life is in perpetual change and uncertainty. From time to time, however, we find our hero Fern delighting in life’s permanence — nature.

She finds herself floating naked in a stream somewhere resembling Yosemite park. She stars up at the sky as clear rejuvenating waters delicately carry her down stream. As she drives slowly through the great national parks of the West, she pauses to stare at the gate of a meandering buffalo. In another chapter of her travels, she runs free in the colorful and spiritual mineral deposits of the Badlands.

At night a group of people at a campsite near the badlands gauze at the stars, and then gaze at their hands. For billions of years those stars and comets they are staring at have landed on this planet. For over immeasurable amounts of time that same very star dust has contributed to the biological constitution of their very hands. In each and every one of us is a kernel of permanence.

In these scenes Fern embraces beautiful aspects of life that never seem to change. She gets lost among the redwoods, admiring their roots. They run so deep and have been there for thousands of years. As she runs her hand over a fallen redwood tree, she realizes that even these timeless giants eventually fall and become part of the forest floor.

Nature is not the only aspect of her new life that she holds close to her heart. The people of her nomadic society are important to her. This community of Nomads cook together, they keep each other warm, they teach each other how to survive as nomads and they comfort each other emotionally. They have dance halls and play music together. They take care of each other when they are sick. They pass their time by actually spending time together and speaking with each other.

These nomads develop bonds with each other that are as ancient and pure as the star dust composites that constitute their hands.

Culinary note: In a story such as Nomadland one has to pair this film with a pasta that represents survival itself: Cacio e Pepe. With just two ingredients, Pecorino Romano cheese and black pepper, this dish is a delicious compliment to a film asking us to return to the luxurious basics of human life.