People who never imagined being nomads are hitting the road. But now, in the third millennium, a new kind of wandering tribe are emerging. There have always been itinerants, drifters, hobos, restless souls. A new existence began to emerge as these people swapped their houses or apartments for camper vans, recreational vehicles (RVs), old buses and the like, taking to road in search of short-term work and a less burdensome life. As a consequence of the economic collapse and associated foreclosures, many Americans – typically seniors ranging from their mid-fifties to early eighties – could no longer afford to maintain a traditional bricks-and-mortar house and pay the essential bills. In her forward to the book, Bruder outlines the developments that have led to the emergence of a new way of living for many individuals struggling to make ends meet. While I don’t agree with these criticisms of Zhao – the film is a drama, not a documentary, and Zhao has every right to craft the type of story she wants to tell rather than conveying everything in Bruder’s book – the articles left me sufficiently curious about the underlying issues to seek out the original text.įirst published in 2017, Nomadland – which is subtitled Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century – is the result of three years of fully-immersive investigative reporting on the part of Bruder, an award-winning journalist whose work focuses on subcultures and the darker aspects of America’s economy. Some critics have taken issue with Zhao for her directorial choices, especially the ‘light touch’ depiction of the appalling working conditions many nomads have to endure to finance their fragile existences. That said, not everyone is a fan of the adaptation. The cinematography, in particular, is stunning, giving the movie a wonderful poetic feel. When viewed as a piece of art in its own right, the film is excellent – a powerful yet intimate tapestry of stories, an evocative portrait of a new kind of travelling community, largely born from the fallout of America’s economic crisis in 2008. Earlier this year, I saw Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, the award-winning film based on Jessica Bruder’s non-fiction book of the same name.

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