Centerpiece Film
(USA, 134 min)
Writers: Virgil Williams (in attendance), Dee Rees, Hillary Jordan
Director: Dee Rees
Cast: Rob Morgan, Kelvin Harrison Jr.,Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke, Mary J. Blige
Set in the rural American South during World War II, Dee Rees’s Mudbound is an epic story of two families pitted against one another by a ruthless social hierarchy, yet bound together by the shared farmland of the Mississippi Delta.
Mudbound follows the McAllan family, newly transplanted from the quiet civility of Memphis and unprepared for the harsh demands of farming. Despite the grandiose dreams of Henry (Jason Clarke), the clan's leader, his wife Laura (Carey Mulligan) struggles to keep the faith in her husband's losing venture. Meanwhile, Hap and Florence Jackson (Rob Morgan, Mary J. Blige) — fellow sharecroppers who have worked the land for generations — struggle bravely to build a small dream of their own despite the rigidly enforced social barriers they face.
The war upends both families' plans as their returning loved ones, Jamie McAllan (Garrett Hedlund) and Ronsel Jackson (Jason Mitchell), forge a fast but uneasy friendship that challenges the brutal realities of the Jim Crow South in which they live.
