Director – Max Walker-Silverman – 2025 – US – Cert. PG – 96m
****
A divorced man whose home has been destroyed by a forest fire begins to reconnect with his pre-teenage daughter – out in UK cinemas on Friday, April 17th
This opens with an image of red hot embers rising and falling a black night sky. A couple of brief, opening, expository shots is all we are shown of the tragedy, but it’s enough: much of the remainder of the narrative takes place against a backdrop of leafless, tall, burned trees, an area of likely great former beauty now reduced to desolation. This is not the cinema of big budget disaster scenarios with no-holds barred pyrotechnic effects: it’s something altogether much lower key and quieter, an exploration of the effect of natural disasters on the lives of those people who survive them.
The fire has destroyed the 20 acres of property on the edge of the forest where Dusty (Josh O’Connor from The History of Sound, Oliver Hermanus, 2025; Mothering Sunday, Eva Husson, 2017; God’s Own Country, Francis Lee, 2017) lives, an area of outstanding natural beauty. He sells off his surviving livestock at an auction, then calls in on his ex-wife Ruby (Meghann Fahy from The White Lotus, TV series, 2022) who lives in the nearby town with their pre-teen daughter Callie-Rose (Lily LaTorre) and his mother-in-law Bess (Amy Madigan from Weapons, Zach Cregger, 2025; Pollock, Ed Harris, 2000; Field of Dreams, Phil Alden Robinson, 1989). About to move into one of the units in a trailer park provided by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), he finds himself unexpectedly and against his initial wishes saddled with the little girl for the next few days.
Unpacking his meagre belongings in the trailer, an immediate problem presents itself: Callie-Rose needs wifi to do her homework, which involves reading storybooks on the tablet provided her by her school. So dad ends up driving her to the library in town, to access wifi, but which is closed. All is not lost, however, as he learns from a passer-by that the wifi is available 24-7 and extends into the area of the library car park. They spend the evening sitting in the back of his truck as she reads. And then they talk.
This puts him very much in Callie-Rose’s mother’s good books. Ruby may be married to someone else, but she does all she can to help her ex in what is clearly a difficult time for him.
What follows is undeniably low-key and slow moving. A lot like Dusty who, as portrayed by Josh O’Connor, is a thoughtful type, who ponders on life a lot without necessarily coming to any great conclusions, although as we shall discover in the final reel, he is capable of momentous decisions that can change many people’s lives for the better.
The beautifully understated narrative delivers striking moments couched in ordinary, everyday experience. For instance, during a later visit of Ruby and Callie-Rose to Dusty’s trailer, the young girl gets them putting glow in the dark stars on the interior trailer walls, leading to a near-transcendent moment when they turn out the lights and marvel at the luminous green-glowing glowing stars on the walls around them. This finds an echo in a much later sequence, in daylight sunshine, when Dusty enlists Callie-Rose’s help in painting his trailer blue. In both cases, there’s the feeling of both the power of transformation of a home and a job well done.
Dusty gets to know his trailer park neighbours, fellow survivors of the same natural disaster. Chief among these is Mali (Kali Reis) who welcomes him with home cooking which he can take away and enjoy alone in the privacy of his own trailer. He meets a half dozen or so others, including couples, who swap notes as to where they lived before the fire – in each case, a familiar piece of land or scenery Dusty has passed many times and is familiar with without knowing whoever lived there. Shorn of their isolated rural dwellings, and thrown together post-crisis, a real sense of camaraderie develops among these people, Dusty included, through the shared experience of bake-outs.
If you thought the softly-spoken Dusty was introverted, wait ‘til you meet Art (David Bright) – or rather, see him at a distance. Because Mali, and in her wake, Dusty, take him home cooking and leave it for him on his porch. (The trailers come with pleasing wooden steps up to the door, making them feel more like a home, even if that home is temporary.) One night, Art beckons Dusty and Mali over and takes them out to the nearby brush to show them a small plant, growing alone, as proof that life can break through even in the toughest and unlikeliest of circumstances.
The transient nature of these trailer park dwellings is thrown into sharp focus the day all the residents discover pink notes on their front doors. These are FEMA notices telling them they need to vacate in 12 days. As the deadline looms, Dusty and Mali discover that Art has vacated his trailer. “He’ll be okay,” says Mali, acknowledging the man’s quiet self-reliance.
Dusty, a man of few words, has been turning things over in his head. He comes up with a proposal to put to the lady from FEMA and his new-found neighbours when opportunity presents itself…
This is a quiet and gentle film, which understands its characters at considerable depth and slowly draws you in to their lives. That’s true of main protagonist Dusty, but also applies to lesser characters such as his trailer park neighbours. There’s an understated resilience about them, which speaks volumes about our individual and collective capacities as human beings. In short, a minor gem.
Rebuilding is out in cinemas in the UK on Friday, April 17th.
Trailer: