If you like to dream and are feeling a bit lost, Jordan Roberts’ Burn Your Maps can help reconfigure your idea of home.
The film was screened on December 7 at The Beach, opposite Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR) as part of Dubai International Film Festival (Diff).
Based on a short story by Robyn Joy Leff, the story follows a troubled family that is falling apart six months after the loss of their baby girl. As parents Alise (Vera Farmiga) and Connor (Marton Csokas) come to grips with the consequent emptiness and anger through counselling sessions, their eight-year-old son Wes, played by Jacob Tremblay, becomes convinced he was born in the wrong place, and that he has to go ‘home’ to Mongolia.
Tremblay steals the show with his incredible conviction that he is actually a Mongolian goat herder. He pulls at your heartstrings while stomping around in his older sister’s Ugg boots, and shepherding a herd of goats he has created with tissue rolls. The young actor gave a stellar performance in last year’s Academy Award-nominated film, Room, and he does it again in Burn Your Maps.
This film reminded me of another little gem — Little Miss Sunshine — which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006. It has a similar vibe and focuses on a dysfunctional family, who find hope and peace after seeing each other through dark days.
If you like dramas with delightful moments of comedy thrown in, this is the movie for you.
Diff runs until December 14. For screening schedules and tickets, go to diff.ae.
