Chloé Zhao made history at the 93rd Academy Awards as the first woman of colour (and only the second woman ever) to take home the Oscar for Best Director. Both in celebration of her victories across the awards season and in recognition of her remarkable career, MUBI has given her debut feature, a sombre Native American drama called Songs My Brothers Taught Me, a wide release on their streaming platform. Zhao’s debut is a slow, meditative and deeply compassionate account of the pain Native Americans have felt for decades.
Set on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, we follow two siblings from the Sioux Lakota tribe, Johnny (John Reddy) and his younger sister, Jashaun Winters (Jashaun St. John). Johnny, a bootlegger, is keen to leave for Los Angeles with his girlfriend, Aurelia (Tashya Fuller), but fears leaving behind his vulnerable sister and their struggling single mother, Lisa (Irene Bedard). The decision to cast Bedard, who voiced the lead in Disney’s now more controversial adaptation of the Pocahontas story, is clear. Life for Native Americans is not mythical nor wondrous, but part of a tragic history of forgotten and overlooked people.
It feels a grounded, modern response to the less sympathetic portrayals of ‘Indians’ in the classic Westerns of yore. Pine Ridge, built on the battleground of Wounded Knee, is the poorest of all the Native American reservations. It exists somewhere outside of time, as if civilisation has been static since the 1980s. But time has no less weathered their homes and their faces, while residents struggle with alcoholism and young men grow up without guidance or ambition.
Early on in the film Lisa receives word that the siblings’ absent father, Carl, has died in a house fire. At his funeral, his 25 children reflect on their conflicted feelings about taking his last name and share in having never known their father. Zhao’s debut is a cold and melancholy film. It’s an unglamorous and painfully authentic portrait of life as a forgotten member of American society, and one that never feels exploitative. There is no cheap melodrama, nor a contrived, patronising narrative running through the middle. Indeed, it is dull and tedious, but such is life on a reservation.
The reservation is surrounded by gorgeous scenery, with barren landscapes that stretch out endlessly towards an infinite sky. For better and worse, British cinematographer Joshua James Richards, Zhao’s longtime collaborator, echoes Emmanuel Lubezki’s magnificent work with Terrence Malick on his 2011 naturalistic masterpiece, The Tree of Life. Malick is a noted influence on Zhao in both style and aesthetics, but her film does begin to rely a little too heavily on its influences. It meanders between lingering close-ups and wide landscapes with a distracting air of portentousness, like it’s never quite sure why it’s there, or where to go next.
The film was developed at the Sundance Institute workshops, a programme designed to aid upcoming and independent filmmakers. It received recognition at Cannes, with a nomination for the Camera d’Or (effectively Best Debut), and the Independent Spirit Awards. Zhao pays a not-so-subtle homage to the Institute with Carl’s horse, named Sundance, but the name seems poignantly out of place. Life for people at Pine Ridge takes place firmly outside of Hollywood fantasy, but they no less seek an escape.
It can be a hard task to elevate the pensive and thoughtful above feeling like a slog, but Zhao just about manages it. Her approach to the material is less compelling than her endeavour to shine a light on a forgotten people, whose ways of life have received little attention outside of caricatured representations of war-dress. Zhao clearly has vision as a filmmaker, and even if the film falls into a few clichéd traps, it beautifully navigates its tragic subject matter.
Verdict
Beautifully composed, Songs My Brothers Taught Me is an often touching tale of a forgotten community. People looking for an engaging story may come away from Zhao’s debut feeling a little underwhelmed but fans of quiet, Malickian dramas will find plenty to love.
Rating: 7/10
Songs My Brothers Taught Me is streaming on MUBI now.
Words by Sebastian Mann
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