Showtimes: 6:30pm & 8:15pm

Awards: National Board of Review: Top Ten Independent Films; San Diego Film Critics: Best Body of Work —Josh O’Connor.

Director: Max Walker-Silverman

Cast: Josh O’Connor, Meghann Fahy, Lilly LaTorre, Amy Madigan

Runtime: 96 minutes

Language: English

“A lyrical take of combating misfortune via community.” — Nick Schager, Daily Beast.

Finding a way forward after tragedy is essentially what “Rebuilding” is about: the film focuses on Josh O’Connor’s Dusty, a rancher who loses his home in a wildfire after it destroys the 200 acres his family has owned for generations.

There’s an implication that the ranch was his whole life. Dusty’s not the only one who lost something, though. Sequestered in a FEMA outpost of a scattered grouping of mobile homes, he meets others who were affected by the fires, including an elderly couple, a kind recluse, and a single mother (Kali Reis). Their temporary housing sits in the middle of vast brush land with mountains in the distance reaching towards the sky. In town, Dusty’s ex-wife Ruby (Meghann Fahy) lives with their daughter Callie Rose (Lilly LaTorre) and her mother Bess (Amy Madigan). Now that land he’s called home is destroyed, Dusty is unmoored, searching for purpose in a barren landscape that seems indifferent to the people who call it home. He contemplates moving to Montana to work on his cousin’s land, but Ruby and Bess point out how that would impact Callie Rose, who clearly looks up to her father even as she acts as if she doesn’t really need him. Because Dusty lost his home, his desire to pack up and leave to look for community elsewhere becomes almost overwhelming. What Dusty doesn’t expect is to find that there is community right before him in the middle of nowhere. “Rebuilding” takes a patient, contemplative approach to its story, letting us discover the ways community organically forms around loss and tragedy without overwhelming you with an overbearing sadness. There is always hope.