‘Rebuilding’: Sundance Review

Dir: Max Walker-Silverman. US. 2025. 95 mins.

This quietly hopeful Colorado-set drama unfolds in the wake of a devastating wildfire. A work of subtle but deep emotion, even the blaze is conveyed with minimalist elegance as we see a handful of golden embers dance against the night sky. In the cold light of day blackened tree carcasses bear witness to the devastation, indicating the extent of an inferno that has also destroyed the ranch owned by cowboy Dusty (Josh O’Connor).

Timeless considerations of community resilience

Set against a similar rural backdrop to his debut film A Love Song, which premiered at Sundance in 2022, Max Walker-Silverman returns to the festival’s Premieres section with a film that could scarcely have more resonance in the wake of the calamitous fires that have ripped through Los Angeles. Timely it may be but its appeal to audiences and distributors also lies in its timeless considerations of community resilience.

O’Connor is the headline cast name, but Rebuilding is an ensemble piece in which even the smallest role counts. The British star continues his recent run of impressively eclectic performances, including La Chimera and Challengers, and has no problem slipping quietly into the cowboy boots of Dusty, a man of few words, whose roots lie deep in this landscape but who now seems displaced from it.

Walker-Silverman gives his characters a practical and lived-in sensibility, which means they behave like real human beings. Though Dusty is no longer with his wife Ruby (Meghann Fahy), who has taken their nine-year-old daughter Callie-Rose (Lily LaTorre) to live with her mum Bess (Amy Madigan) and new partner Robbie (Sam Engbring), she still cares about Dusty’s situation and encourages him to reconnect with his daughter.

Living in a basic emergency caravan alongside a clutch of other unlucky homeless locals on a scrap of land in the middle of nowhere, Dusty is reluctant to even take Callie-Rose there. But as soon as he suggests the other residents are “not my real neighbours” we know all that is set to change. They are a mixed posse of all ages, gender preferences and attitudes, as befits those affected by an indiscriminate blaze. Chief among them is Mali (Kali Reis), who was widowed by the fire and who has a child of similar age to Callie-Rose.

Walker-Silverman takes this simple set up and breathes it full of intricate life, helped by the fact that there are plenty of locals in the wider cast that lend a similar sense of authenticity to the trailer park community as that seen in Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland.

Dusty may be forced to face up to the fact that his dream of rebuilding is easier said than done but at the same time, Walker-Silverman is gently laying the foundations for reconstruction of a different sort. Now Dusty has the time for Callie-Rose he never had when his life revolved around the ranch and the pair begin to teach each other a thing or two, whether it’s how to saddle a horse or turn the inside of a trailer into an unexpected galaxy of stars.

Relationships are less built through dialogue than via small gestures, a foil-wrapped plate of leftovers speaking volumes about caring for a neighbour, a photograph of grandparents a reminder of the durability of families. All the while, the acoustic guitar-driven score from Jake Xerxes Fussell and James Elkington adds to the sense of place.

Walker-Silverman’s landscapes remain big, however, frequently captured with a mellow magic-hour glow by Alfonso Herrera Salcedo, who also shot A Love Song. A distant lightning storm indicates nature is a force to be reckoned with but in Walker-Silverman’s films the energy of empathetic human nature is shown to be just as powerful.