Has anyone been more employed on the festival circuit this year than Josh O’Connor? The Challengersactor stars in Oliver Hermanus’ History Of Sound, Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, and Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man, all of which already have teasers or trailers for those of us who couldn’t make it to Cannes or Toronto. Now, we also have a trailer for Rebuilding, O’Connor’s fourth festival film of the year. Max Walker-Silverman’s sophomore feature bowed this past January at Sundance, and if the trailer is any indication, it’ll be another great addition to the growing canon of melancholy but beautiful O’Connor-led films.
In the “gently humanist” story, O’Connor plays Dusty, a Colorado rancher and “reserved, divorced father whose ranch has burned down in a devastating wildfire,” per the film’s synopsis. Dusty moves into a trailer on a government-run campsite where he meets a community of neighbors who’ve also lost everything. With their support, as well as the young daughter (Lila LaTorre) and ex-wife (Meghann Fahy) with whom he recently reconnected, Dusty finally starts to rebuild.
In a director’s statement, Walker-Silverman shared that he was inspired to make the film after losing his grandmother’s land to a similarly devastating wildfire. While he said the experience of returning to the formerly “green and magnificent” expanse was “sad in countless ways,” it also provided a sliver of hope: “There was green too. Seedlings pushing through the ash. Purple flower buds. And seeing the small stubborn ways that nature returns was so fascinating it left hardly any space for sadness at all.”
“This paradox began to birth this story,” he went on. “How could a place be so impermanent—it has burned and will burn again, it’s changing as all places change, growing and struggling as all places grow and struggle—and yet so clearly be home?” Rebuilding premieres November 14 in theaters.
