There’s more than one way to bring real life to the screen. One approach is to place a fictional character inside a real-world setting. Here, we look at how Nomadland offers a moving narrative set within the lived experiences of modern-day ‘houseless’ nomads…
Screenwriter: Chloé Zhao
Based on: The 2017 non-fiction book Nomadland by Jessica Bruder – some of the reporting originally appeared in Bruder’s August 2014 Harper’s Magazine article, ‘The End of Retirement: When You Can’t Afford to Stop Working’
Script source: Script Slug
Synopsis
2012. After the gypsum mine and company town where she spent her married life shuts down, widow Fern, 60s, moves into a basic van and becomes a ‘houseless’ nomad. She travels from temp job to temp job, connecting with fellow nomads as she struggles to adapt to her harsh and minimalist life on the road.
Along the way, Fern meets Dave, a fellow van-dweller, and they form a tentative relationship. An expensive van repair forces Fern to ask her estranged sister for help, but she refuses her offer of a permanent place to stay. Dave goes to see his son in California ahead of the arrival of his first grandchild. Fern visits. She learns that Dave has decided to leave the road and stay with his family.
Fern is offered the chance to move into the guest house and start a new life with Dave and his family. However, she chooses to return to the road.
Constructing the narrative
In her earlier work, The Rider (2017), writer/director Chloe Zhao combined real life and fiction to dramatize the experiences of a young rodeo rider who suffers a traumatic head injury. The film employed non-actors playing their real-life roles. The protagonist is a thinly fictionalized version of the real Brady Jandreau, who plays the role himself – essentially starring in his own life story.
Zhao brings elements of this to Nomadland but in a slightly different way. Here, the fictional protagonist guides us through the real world of the nomads, who play themselves. Key characters are Linda May (around whose story the non-fiction book is built), fellow nomad Swankie, and Bob Wells, the van-dwelling guru behind the popular Rubber Tramp Rendezvous (RTR) meetups in Quartzsite, Arizona.
At the heart of the story is Fern, a fictional character rooted firmly in the world of the van dwellers. She combines aspects of Linda May and Swankie, but also the actor playing the role (Frances McDormand, who was a driving force behind the project).
Her function is to provide the emotional heart of the story and to drive the thin but structured narrative. She also leads us through the world and its inhabitants. As the book’s author, Jessica Bruder told TIME magazine:
“[Fern] guides us down this road, and we meet all these people. We follow her narrative, but she’s also this backbone, and all these other things spoke off of her story.”
As such, Fern’s storyline blends fact and fiction. The relationship with Dave (also a fictional character) is invented for the story. But, again, Dave is a seamless part of the story world. A similar age to Fern, he’s a seasoned van-dweller who has tired of the loneliness of the road and wants to reconnect with his family. Beyond just a tentative love interest and second chance for Fern, Dave represents an important POV in the story.
However, Fern’s backstory is rooted firmly in reality. Bruder’s book discusses the company town of Empire, which was abandoned when United States Gypsum shut down its mine in 2010. In the script, it is Empire’s demise, followed by the death of her husband, which prompts Fern to become a van-dweller.
Other examples drawn from the source material include Fern attending the RTR and talking with Bob Wells, her seasonal work (including at the Amazon warehouse and the sugar beet harvest), and her time as a camp host with Linda May, who she befriends.
Throughout, Fern’s journey, experiences, and interactions are sympathetic to the real-world setting. We’re drawn into Fern’s story, while learning about the nomadic lifestyle and ‘houseless’ subculture, including the reasons why (mostly retirement-age) people hit the road.
Just as Bruder’s book presents the complexities of van life, so the screen story ensures we understand the defiant freedom of the road, as well as its harsh realities. It also highlights themes of loss, permanence and concepts of home.
Why choose the ‘fictional narrative’ route?
Most fact-based films aim to tell an interesting true story, so the writing challenge is to dramatize the real events and people. However, if you’re struggling with adapting a real-life story for the screen, choosing the fictional narrative route might offer an effective solution.
In particular, it provides freedom and flexibility, which can help you to address:
- True stories with no clear or compelling protagonist
- Sprawling or unfocused historical events with no obvious central story thread
- Stories where world-building or social issues are as important as the drama
- Instances where rights issues are an obstacle
- Cases where the real-life story doesn’t fully support the theme or controlling idea
The fictional narrative approach allows you to craft your own story, with all the required elements – character arc, rising action, three-act structure, satisfying resolution, etc. – without sacrificing the rich, compelling historical or real-world backdrop.
With access to the source book’s author and the real-life nomads (many of whom appeared in the film), Zhao took this approach almost to the level of docudrama.
However, for all screenwriters who are looking to bring history to life on the page, Nomadland demonstrates how to blend fact and fiction to create a compelling drama set in an authentic and through-provoking setting.
Want more? Subscribe (for free) to our companion Substack newsletter for access to our full Nomadland analysis (available 26 September), plus extra content each month. Check it out here: https://thefactbasedscreenplay.substack.com/p/shaping-history-into-a-screen-narrative-ee3
Go further:
Take a look at the trailer for Nomadland:
You might also like to watch this making of documentary:
Other examples of the fictional narrative in fact-based film include Titanic (1997) and Gangs of New York (2002).
You might also want to watch some Italian neorealist films. This style employed non-professional actors and actual locations to depict life in post-war Italy. Two of the most well-known titles are Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City (1946) and Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves (1948).