Thanks for the memories!

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Beautiful, moving film.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Ian Olds made the documentary Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi. It showed the working relationship between journalist Christian Parenti and his Afghan colleague Ajmal Naqshbandi during the Afghan War. Naqshbandi was killed by the Taliban.In this feature film, Osman (Dominic Rains) is a fixer/interpreter to an American journalist now living in rural northern California having been granted asylum status.Osman lives with the mother of his American journalist friend who obviously loves the thrill of being a war reporter. His mom Gloria (Melissa Leo) is a cop and Osman is very much a surrogate son to her.Osman needs to fit in, he gets a low paid job as a crime reporter and is very much a fish out of water as he encounters the low life in the town, not far from being hillbillies. One of them is Lindsay (James Franco) who when sober can construct the best hot tubs but disappears and might have killed someone.Osman also meets some hippy types who treat him nice but underneath there might also be tension as they test his masculinity being a displaced person.The story was weak and far fetched. There is a film to be told of an Afghan asylum seeker trying to fit in his host country. Here Osman covers up for Lindsay a man he hardly knows and who beat him up when they first met. He then later gets in a fight with some gangster types. The plot just stretched credibility.

At first glance Burn Country is quite a simple story, I think drawing comparisons between cultures and showing how expectations of others can be wildly off the mark. However the events which at first seem to be random or at best disconnected, begin to take on a meaning, which for me was drawing comparisons between Afghanistan and it's history and global human nature which is deeply touted in ancient tribal reasoning. Corruption is everywhere, violence is everywhere, tribal management of small social groups is everywhere, but we all do the same thing in our own ways. At the end Osman finds solace in listening to his homeland and feeling connected to his roots, and yet the things he tried to escape were right there with him still in the US, in the way of the US, but following the patterns as his homeland and probably of all countries. The title make absolutely no sense to me at all, but the story is one of tribal living, an almost 'beyond modern rules and law' existence that works simply because it has to. It takes the length of the film for Osman to realise this and while he cannot ever go home, he can immerse himself in the new home in the knowledge that the ways will soon become familiar to him and he leads the same life in a different place.

A little confusing trying to see this movie as two titles were used. the movie opening title is Burn Country, but some theaters referred to it as the Fixer. Must have been an old titleUnder either title , it is a wild and fascinating film, about Osman who is a fixer. Back in Afghanistan he was a journalist who specialized in being Foreign journalist connection to the people, but he was exiled and with the help of a friend, ended up in a small town in Northern California that doesn't meet his expectations of America, but he tries to make the best of it by doing his best in a crappy job at the local newspaper as a police blogger (basically making police reports sound interesting to the public).He's a foreign man on American soil, but in a place and culture that not a lot of American's see on the daily.Burn Country starts out with a simple narrative of Osman trying to make good by doing what he does best, journalism, and he decides to take the only job he can get as a journalist and take it far too seriously.Melissa Leo, an amazing Thespian who changes her look like she was Daniel Day Lewis to do the part, plays Osman's sponsor in the states, a police sheriff who is the mother of a fellow journalist still over in Afghanistan. She has a very motherly relationship, somewhat trading in one son for another.James Franco was actually very impressive. I've seen him do small movies like this in which he just does a cameo to sell movie tickets I guess, but he does have a critical role in this beyond that. Nothing fancy, he's not doing anything that you have not seen him do in a Seth Rogen film, but you see this method really works as a supporting actor for Dominic Rains' leading man.A very good leading man too. Very likable and charismatic. He gets you into the character's story, which is good cause it's basically just watching this guy adjust to a culture not his own.And Burn Country picked the best setting. It was different enough to me that I was a bit of a fish out of water trying to understand how these people live.Burn Country starts out as a very clear narrative and then gets a little sir real as Osman experiences the culture clash. Very good.

Osman, from afghanistan, is in ca. looking for a job as a journalist. he was formerly the interpreter for an American newsman there and is looking for a better life anywhere but his home. he is staying with the journalists' mother, the local sheriff. before long someone burns up his hosts' mailbox and Osman can't get a pack of cigs in the town general store. do they hate muslims, strangers in general, or what. who knows. before long Osman gets himself in dangerous situations, and really doesn't seem to learn from his experiences. (for instance, when a cop tells me to stay in the patrol car, i'd stay put). people just do not act this way. and I would certainly think that anyone from afghanistan would be very leery. anyway, ian olds, the director, must be close friends with james franco, who plays an unrecognizable pot head here. I am not sure if this is stranger in a strange land territory, or a director not knowing what tale he is telling. the cinematography is very good, though.