Summary

The film Nomadland directed by Chloé Zhao tells the story of Fern, a widow from Empire, Nevada, who takes up a nomadic lifestyle after the company that owns the town shuts down the mine there. Fern lives in a van she calls “Vanguard” and travels the country taking up seasonal jobs.

At the beginning of the movie, Fern is standing in front of a storage unit where she keeps her possessions. At one point, she finds a man’s coat. She hugs it, visibly upset. Then she leaves.

Fern drives through the desert singing Christmas songs. She stops at an RV park where Patty, the manager, is looking for her reservation on the computer but cannot find it initially. Fern tells her that she is supposed to start work at the Amazon warehouse. Patty finally finds the reservation.

Fern works at the Amazon warehouse together with a friend called Linda May, who is also a nomad. One night, Linda May tells Fern about why she took up the nomadic lifestyle. She talks about how she could not afford rent after the 2008 recession, and that she finally found advice for cheap RV living from a man called Bob Wells. She shows Fern a video of Bob and tells her about an annual gathering that Bob holds in Quartzsite Arizona, which provides support for new nomads. Fern does not really want to go, but Linda leaves her the address to the gathering anyway.

Fern leaves the RV park after New Year, when her seasonal work at Amazon is done. She tries to take up other work and talks to a recruiter. Although Fern has ple...