An arresting directorial debut from Morrisa Maltz, “The Unknown Country” tells the story of one woman’s journey through her past. The film opens at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center July 28.
Continuing is “Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy.”
In “The Unknown Country,” Tana (Lily Gladstone) is reeling from a devastating loss, but is pulled back into the world by an unexpected invitation to her cousin’s wedding. She packs up her late grandmother’s Cadillac and hits the open road, driving from her home in Minnesota to South Dakota. After reconnecting with her Oglala Lakota family, Tana sets off to retrace a surreal journey that her grandmother took decades ago, searching for the spot captured in an old family photograph. As she travels, Tana finds connection in the stories of everyday people who’ve settled down far off the main roads including Isaac (Raymond Lee), who provides a pivotal clue to understanding the lost location that could cultivate closure.
“The Unknown Country” will show at the Ross through Aug. 10.
A half century after its release, “Midnight Cowboy” remains one of the most original and groundbreaking movies of the modern era. With beguiling performances from Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, blacklist survivor Waldo Salt’s brilliant screenplay, and John Schlesinger’s fearless direction, the 1969 film became the only X-rated film to ever win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Its vivid and compassionate depiction of a more realistic, unsanitized New York City and its inhabitants paved the way for a generation’s worth of gritty movies with complex characters and adult themes.
But this is not a documentary about the making of “Midnight Cowboy”: It is about the deeply gifted and flawed people behind a dark and difficult masterpiece; New York City in a troubled time of cultural ferment; and the era that made a movie and the movie that made an era. Featuring extensive archival material and compelling new interviews, Buirski illuminates how one film captured the essence of a time and a place, reflecting a rapidly changing society with striking clarity.
“Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy” is playing through Aug. 3.
Learn more about the films, including show times and ticket availability.
