East of Wall

By Joanna Langfield

Heartbreaking yet uplifting, this hybrid docu/drama introduces us to a woman who is hard to forget.

Filmmaker Kate Beecroft reportedly spend three years filming this portrait of Tabatha Zimiga and her family, a collection of people, living on inherited land in the Badlands, training and selling horses to, somehow, get by. Many of the players here are the actual people of the story, a few actors show up in key roles, to help give structure to it.

Yes, Tabatha’s backstory is tough and tragic. After the death of her husband, shaken for reasons eventually revealed, she must still find a way to keep the ranch afloat. Her tough love extends not just to the horses she breaks, but also to the numerous abandoned children she takes in to join her own. When a wealthy benefactor shows up, promising a way out, Tabatha is faced with a wrenching choice. Should she literally sell out to the curious, well heeled Texan or continue, insistently making it on her own?

While Beecroft’s decision to lay out the storytelling with this twist may or may not have been necessary. The always welcome actor Scoot McNairy does a fine job, as does Jennifer Ehle, in a larger role as Tabatha’s mother. But the real people we spend time with, the assemblage of young people as self-sufficient as they are dependent, the townswomen who share their stories over a beer and a campfire, and especially Tabatha herself, are compelling enough to etch themselves into our souls.

This is a particular and pointed American story. What it shows us is important to see at any time, but, maybe it is especially so now.