Burn Country

2016
4.8| 1h42m| en| More Info
Released: 16 April 2016 Released
Producted By: Gigi Films
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

A former war journalist now writing for a paper in Northern California is drawn into conflict at home.

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Reviews

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.
Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!
Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Michael Ledo Osman (Dominic Rains) worked in Afghanistan as a reporter/ interpreter. He left there to come to the US, living with cop Gloria (Melissa Leo) in a small town in California. She is the mother of a reporter still in Afghanistan.He meets a group of hippies and some rural folks. When a man is killed, all Osman wants to do is to find James Franco. The movie has stories and flashbacks to Afghanistan to show us how we are all alike...which I didn't really grasp as this was a community living out of the American mainstream. The people were bat sh** crazy.The plot seemed to drag in circles. The comparisons were half hearted efforts.Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity
Gordon-11 This film tells the story of an Afghan journalist, who is granted political asylum in the United States of America. He settles in a small town, living with the local policewoman. As he begins his new life and start to forge connections with others, he finds himself unknowingly in much danger.The film has nice cinematography and lighting, but unfortunately that is about it. The story is rather poorly told, as things are not clearly explained. The relationship between Osman and the policewoman is quite confusing, as I clearly heard Osman calling the policewoman "mum" on two occasions. It is also hard to understand why Osman acted so irresponsibly, walking into danger when it is very apparent that some people are not to be messed with. Osman's persistent belief of Lindsay needing him is beyond me either, as Lindsay made no such statement, and there is no evidence to make Osman believe in that. The final scenes that happen in a weird commune is very confusing, and makes little sense. I do not understand the story at all.
Boristhemoggy At first glance Burn Country is quite a simple story, I think drawing comparisons between cultures and showing how expectations of others can be wildly off the mark. However the events which at first seem to be random or at best disconnected, begin to take on a meaning, which for me was drawing comparisons between Afghanistan and it's history and global human nature which is deeply touted in ancient tribal reasoning. Corruption is everywhere, violence is everywhere, tribal management of small social groups is everywhere, but we all do the same thing in our own ways. At the end Osman finds solace in listening to his homeland and feeling connected to his roots, and yet the things he tried to escape were right there with him still in the US, in the way of the US, but following the patterns as his homeland and probably of all countries. The title make absolutely no sense to me at all, but the story is one of tribal living, an almost 'beyond modern rules and law' existence that works simply because it has to. It takes the length of the film for Osman to realise this and while he cannot ever go home, he can immerse himself in the new home in the knowledge that the ways will soon become familiar to him and he leads the same life in a different place.
refordgarry Difficult if you've seen Borat (2006) not to draw obvious comparisons, despite "Burn Country" being a human drama, profound yet also somewhat entertaining.The character, Osman, (played by Dominic Rains) has arrived fresh from Afghanistan into small-town California, a romantic terrain of rolling mists, deserted beaches, Sequoia trees and American homesteads inhabited, it seems exclusively by white rednecks and new-age hippies. The refugee-Afghan interpreter, journalist and "fixer" intent on using journalism in his new life sports a mustache and stubble, together with more than a touch of that endearing, unpredictable, quirky nature that got Sacha Baron-Cohen's "Borat" in such trouble with his critics. The obvious nature of Osman's recent violent war- torn past, however that led him to seek asylum on the US is reflected in events that unfold during the not-so-innocent Afghan journalist's familiarization with American backwoods life – inhabited by a community whose tribal "answers" to the problems of their often violent way of living sometimes rivals even Osman's birthplace, continents away, supposedly proving that we are, under the skin not so different from one another.Osman, at one point purports his reason for coming to America being not the danger, but because he: "got the idea stuck in his head that life started somewhere else……. like you had to get out to have a chance of really living.."Since the justification for the journalist's asylum in America is never in doubt (with him unable to return home), the depiction of small- town America here ought make Americans feel rightly proud for welcoming a stranger so unconditionally into their close-knit tribe. Burn Country does, in a sense accentuate the need for community over city, notwithstanding its incredibly "fuzzy" attitude towards the dispensing law and order - the positive message from this movie being the power of Human Nature to eventually triumph over personal differences and other adversities.