LAND OF GOLD

USA2022105 minutesEnglish, Punjabi, Spanish with English subtitlesToronto PremiereDrama, Family

Kiran, a first-generation Punjabi truck driver, is about to become a father, but he is preoccupied by questions and reflections on family, fatherhood, and responsibility. He embarks on one last work trip to clear his head, but what starts as a peaceful, meditative journey shifts abruptly when he hears pounding inside a shipping container and discovers an undocumented girl named Elena inside. After much convincing, he agrees to set out on a cross-country road trip in search of her family, as the pair bond over music, culturally specific food, and what it means to be seen as “other” in white America.

Nardeep Khurmi skillfully directs and performs in an impressive feature debut to create a profoundly poignant and timely look at solidarity, difference, and found family, while asking us to contemplate the bonds we create with strangers and the memories and traumas that both haunt us and shape us into who we are.

- Mariam Zaidi