Heartland: Land of Gold
A sweet, if overly familiar, road movie about family and responsibility in modern America.
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The surrogate parent-child road movie has become quite a popular story for movies in the past few years. A world-weary adult crosses paths with an aimless but idealistic child, and the two clash as they travel cross-country, eventually unearthing some better part of themselves through their unlikely bond. Land of Gold, directed by and starring Nardeep Khurmi, seeks to inject this flourishing subgenre with a bit of social commentary and an emphasis on Indian and Mexican culture.
Kiran (Khurmi) is a Punjabi truck driver, whose wife Preeti (Pallavi Sastry) is expecting a daughter. Thanks to a traumatic history and rocky relationship with his parents, Kiran is riddled with anxiety about becoming a father. Unfortunately, he takes that out on Preeti, disregarding her need for his presence and support in favor of taking one last job before the baby arrives. Money’s tight, which is his vocal reasoning for leaving, but something tells us he’s more interested in fleeing, at least for the moment, the responsibilities and uncertainties of fatherhood than chasing financial security.
After an argument about the matter, Kiran heads out on the job in a huff, leaving his wife behind to attend ultrasounds and appointments by herself. Shortly thereafter, he discovers he’s brought with him a stowaway—a young, undocumented Mexican girl named Elena (Caroline Valencia). She’s trying to get to her uncle in Boston by any means necessary. Not wanting to abandon her to the streets, Kiran allows her to ride along as far as his journey will take her.
From here, it plays about as expected—a good chunk of the film dedicated to Kiran and Elena’s initial incompatibility, followed by key moments of dramatic tension that force them to put their differences aside and appreciate one another’s company. Khurmi and Valencia’s chemistry does a lot to buoy the relatively conventional proceedings
The story is, of course, ultimately about Kiran’s grappling with becoming a father. We’re piecemealed bits of backstory about his relationship with his own dad, and simultaneously his traumatic experiences with police and racial tensions in America—all of which is culminated in a late moment of heavy-hitting catharsis. For a lot of reasons, Kiran is afraid of not only bringing a child into this world, but of what he might do to her. Elena, through her double-edged bluntness, is able to show him the love he’s capable of.
The fatherhood arc is executed well enough, made believable by Khurmi and Valencia’s naturalistic chemistry, but I was disappointed that Land of Gold didn’t seek to highlight what I thought was the film’s most standout quality: the perspective of two people from very different cultures who share a similar social experience as minorities moving through America.
By no means does every movie about a non-white cultural group need to be about the minority experience, nor all of the racial inequity and social conflict that come with it. But I think in this case, it could have helped Land of Gold feel more distinctive. The scenes we do get, in which Kiran’s hyper-awareness of the White Gaze upon both him and Elena drives him to be overly protective and disciplinary with her, open doors for interesting but all-too-brief moments of mutual sharing between the two, about themselves and their unique cultural backgrounds.
In the end, it’s a fairly conventional on-the-road drama, made compelling my the two central performances. Had it spent more time at the intersection of Kiran’s and Elena’s lived experiences, perhaps it could have been a more memorable journey. But as it stands, it’s an enjoyable trip.