Mudbound

Set in the Mississippi Delta in the wake of World War II, this gripping drama from director Dee Rees follows the fates of a young woman newly transplanted from the big city and a pair of soldiers fresh from victory in Europe. Rising waters, racial tensions, and the jarring shift from wartime to peace render their rural community a battleground of a more personal nature.

Memphis native Laura McAllan (Carey Mulligan) struggles to adjust to life on her new husband's secluded cotton farm. As the swelling Delta waters threaten to swamp them, she scrambles to raise two children in a shack with neither electricity nor plumbing. Her brother-in-law, Jamie (Garrett Hedlund), returns from the war with a head full of nightmares, along with fellow veteran Ronsel Jackson (Jason Mitchell), son of the Black tenant farmers who live on the McAllan land. Overseas and in uniform, Ronsel was a war hero, but status is stripped from him once back within the harsh racial lines of his rural home.

Based on Hillary Jordan's award-winning novel, Mudbound is a powerfully moving story of how people navigate and try to transcend social codes. Drawing subtle but intensely detailed performances from her stellar cast, Rees makes a remarkable leap in scale from her acclaimed, low-budget Pariah (TIFF '11). Made with heart, insight, and an impressive mastery of the language of film, Mudbound reveals racial fear as the crack in the foundation of America. No matter their colour or their circumstances, Rees' characters stand fixed in the mud of that conflict — weighed down, struggling, and whether they mean to or not, leaning on each other for support.