Chloé Zhao · 2020 · road

Chloe Zhao's 2020 film. After her Nevada company town collapses and her husband dies, Fern loads her life into a van and takes to the road as a modern nomad, following seasonal work across the American West. From an Amazon warehouse to the Badlands of South Dakota to the desert gathering at Quartzsite, she drifts through vast landscapes and chance friendships, grieving and free in equal measure.

1. 1
   Empire

   The Nevada company town that dies when its gypsum mine closes, erased even from the zip codes - the loss that sends the widowed Fern out onto the road to live in her van.

2. 2
   The Badlands

   The stark buttes of South Dakota where Fern works a summer as a campground host, one stop on a circuit of seasonal jobs that carries her across the West with the changing seasons.

3. 3
   Quartzsite

   The Arizona desert town where thousands of nomads gather each winter, and where Fern finds a loose, generous community of others living free and unmoored on the road.

4. 4
   The coast

   The Pacific shore of Northern California where Fern's wandering carries her at last - the open road and the open sea, grief slowly giving way to a hard-won peace.